Podcasts about oldpremeds

Have you ever wondered….   What would I do if I could never practice medicine again? This physician did. Find out how he overcame personal challenges and found a whole new passion in the process.     Welcome back to our monthly fireside chat with a physician to get to know their journey, their joys, and their struggles with finances and outside of finances.   This show is not always about actionable content. It is however a chance for you to see behind the curtains, to walk in another person's shoes and experience their lives.   Our next guest has not only been a physician and is married to a physician, but is also a fellow podcaster. As a matter of fact, he recently received his second nomination for a top podcast in the science & medicine category, which is awesome and fantastic.   A little bio on him… He is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force. He graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences, and received his M.D. from New York Medical College. However, he had a shift and I believe that he is no longer a practicing physician. He became the publisher of MedicalSchoolHQ.net and OldPreMeds.org.   What's cool about his new gig- his podcasts are focused on helping medical students and pre-med students. I think there's a lot we can learn about this transition and I'm looking forward to talking to him about it.   He says, “first, [I] found my calling as a physician. Now I'm an educator of future docs.” Please help me welcome Dr. Ryan Gray.   In this podcast, you will discover: How this physician started a side hustle & eventually transitioned out of medicine to be a full time podcaster - Learn how he overcame his financial past to become debt free (and had medical school completely paid for) - The top 2 actions that physician's kids should think about before applying to medical school - Why he doesn't think physician burnout is a problem - How a change in his health changed his future   Click here to grab all the resources, show notes, and more...

The shadowing vs clinical experience debate rages on in this post. This nontrad student wants to know how many hours of shadowing she needs for her apps. Links & Resources: Full Episode Blog Post MSHQ Nontraditional Premed Forum Related episode: How to Effectively Shadow a Physician as a Premed Student Related episode: What Is the Best Paid Clinical Experience for Med School? Related post: Premed Clinical Experience: Shadowing vs Volunteering Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” for 10% off Next Step full-length practice tests or “MSHQTOC” for $50 off MCAT tutoring or the Next Step MCAT Course at Next Step Test Prep!

If you're like most nontraditional premeds, you probably don't have a lot of time to shadow. If you can't build great relationships for LORs, what do you do? Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post Check out my Premed Playbook series of books (available on Amazon), with installments on the personal statement, the medical school interview, and the MCAT. Related episode: How to Get the Best Letters of Recommendation as a Nontrad. Related episode: Do LORs from Optometrists Count as Physician LORs? Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” for 10% off Next Step full-length practice tests or “MSHQTOC” for $50 off MCAT tutoring or the Next Step MCAT Course at Next Step Test Prep!

Session 78 This week, our poster is worried about that little voice in his head that is telling him he may fail at this whole "med school" thing. Listen to my response. If you have any questions, please register at the OldPreMeds.org forums for free and ask away to get some awesome answers from the community. [01:08] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I've taken Ryan's advice to heart and believe that a backup plan will hurt my chances." *Listen to The Premed Years Podcast Episode 213 where I talked about not having a plan B. Some people agreed with it and others but if you have a backup plan of being a nurse, PA, or NP, the psychology is that you are less likely to achieve your goal of becoming a physician because you're able to have that safety valve there. "Not begrudgingly either, I was already convinced of this myself before I heard him say it several months ago so it was great to hear my instincts confirmed. As a 35-year-old nontraditional, convinced that I'm called to serve others as a physician. I eat, sleep, and breathe this journey every second of every day. Yet there are those moments when the still small voice of doubt whispers in my ear a little louder than usual. What if I fail?" "This is a second trip through undergrad to earn my prereqs and at the end of the summer semester, my federal student loan eligibility will be cut off factoring in that they've reached the cap. I've needed to give up my full-time job so I can go to school full time as well as shadow, volunteer, and scribe and then supporting myself almost entirely on private loans. I have a solid two years remaining before I can take the MCAT and by the time I enter med school, I will be on the hook for $100,000 in additional private loan debt to cover tuition and living expenses before I even start medical school. I have no qualms whatsoever about taking on this step because I know this is what I'm supposed to do. But the naysayer voice within that says I can't do this, that tells me just to give up after another sleepless night, simply will not stop asking what if I fail? I exercise regularly trying to limit caffeine and eat healthy. I was a personal trainer for years so I do all that I can to alleviate stress. What other suggestions do you have to shut up this voice?" Here are my thoughts: [03:57] What If I Fail? That inner voice inside you is your guiding light. It's most likely your limbic system saying, "Stop, this is scary. We don't want to do this." Unfortunately, it's not very smart for the age we live in today. That little voice in the back of your head used to be able to tell us, don't go out there. There's a saber-toothed tiger out there that's going to eat you. That was a great little voice to have in the back of your head a hundred thousand years ago. But in today's day and age, that little voice in your head always rears up when you're on the verge of something great or in the face of something tough. It's never there when you're sitting on the couch playing video games or when you're ordering pizza on the phone or when life is easy. It's always there when life is hard, when you're making decisions that have the potential to affect you and everybody else in your life as well as your future. If your little voice is popping up and saying what if you fail, it means you're doing the right thing because it should be hard. That same question, "What if I fail?" can be asked by every student and it has nothing to do with you being a nontrad or all the loans you have. That voice is normal and everybody asks that everyday. Personally, when I release a new podcast and I have four already. What if I fail? What if this new one isn't popular? What if it's not good? This tells me to push forward. [06:13] How You Define Failure In your case, "what if I fail?" should be telling you to keep going. As you're going on your premed journey, define failure. Failure, to me, is giving up. To you this could mean applying to medical school a couple of times and not getting in or going to a Caribbean medical school. But failure, to me, is just giving up even though you know this is still your dream and even if in two years down the line, you still wanted to become a doctor but you can't take it anymore. That, to me, is failure. Failure is not a rejection from medical school. I was rejected from medical school and it wasn't failure. I was just told not yet. [07:05] Change That Voice Instead, change that saying of "What if I fail?" to "What if I succeed?" What would that look like? That would be awesome, wouldn't it? That you're in medical school and you're a medical student. Listen to that voice in your head because when it talks and speaks up, that means you're doing something right. So don't be afraid of it. I know this is a very different show than usual but I like the psychology of thinking. A good writer, Seth Godin, talks about lizard brain which is that little voice in your head, the deepest and oldest part of our brain that told us to stay away from saber-toothed tigers and that's what's telling you "What if I fail?" [08:05] Loans and Timeline On a side note, be very careful with private student loans because they are much, much, much more strict than the federal student loans. I also want to question what's taking you so long? Giving up a full-time job to shadow and everything else and it's still going to take two more years? This timeline seems to be off. I recommend you reach out to somebody or to an advisor. Shoot me an email. But I really think your timeline seems off in this whole thing. Lastly, to your question of "what if I fail?" it depends on what your definition of failure is. [09:10] Final Thoughts Join the collaborative community at OldPreMeds.org and ask a question. If you don't already, subscribe in your favorite podcast app. I actually created a video to show you how to do this. Check it out on www.medicalschoolhq.net/howtosubscribe   Links: The Premed Years Podcast Episode 213: Stop Looking for a Backup Plan, It's Hurting Your Chances www.medicalschoolhq.net/howtosubscribe MedEd Media Network OldPreMeds.org

Session 77 Today's question taken directly from the OldPreMeds.org forum is from a female nontrad student who is looking to possibly restart her postbac after starting it poorly about 5 years ago. She’s also thinking about applying to just 1 school. [01:35] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Her Backstory "I obtained my B.A. in Anthropology in the Midwest many moons ago, worked as an on-camera model/actress to pay rent in my undergrad. Upon graduating, my agent sent me to LA where I worked for three years as a model and actress. I moved back to the Midwest to begin my nontrad premed journey as a single gal when I was about 28 years old at the same school from where I obtained my BA." [02:02] Similar to Jessica's Story This is similar to Jessica's story back on The Premed Years Podcast Session 168. She was a former actress and did her Bachelor of Arts at NYU, lived in L.A. as an actress, and then she decided she wanted to be a doctor and then got ten acceptances. [02:27] Suffering Grades "It is a large university with a medical campus, undergraduate campus, and teaching and research hospital. I was so eager and motivated to be involved in all things medicine that I began working, or shall I say, living in a laboratory for a cardiologist. I literally craved to be there. I would beg my mentor to let me hop on rounds with him. I was eager to be in the lab to perform science to think to shadow and was ferociously stubborn about my goals. However, my tenacity for the hands-on work at the labs/hospital caused my postbac grade to suffer. Nothing too horrible but a few C's and mostly B's." [03:06] Too Much on Your Plate Postbac and C's and B's, that is kind of horrible. It is not very good for a postbac. When you're doing a postbac, the assumption is you've got to shoot for a 4.0. Obviously, you don't have to be perfect. But your goal is a 4.0 especially for nontrads who are trying to fix early grades. As I've discussed before, one of the greatest mistakes premeds make is having too much on your plate that your grades suffer. You can hardly fix grades which means you can fix your grades but with more classes. But it's always average so you can't just replace anymore. Research and clinical experience can always be added. [04:18] Poster's Questions "Fast-forward a few years at 30 years old. After publishing much of my research, I met my husband. He plays in the NFL in our home city and has been for nine years now. His job is anything but traditional and the schedule in life is nothing short of hectic. These past few years, we have been married, traveled, settled into a home, and are thinking about a family soon. Even with all of this, I still have the itch. I am now 33 and wish to continue my journey. I'm so thankful for this website. Should I do a postbac for my postbac? My grades were average at best, relatively speaking, but since so much had passed and I wish to perform well on the MCAT. Should I simply start over? My AMCAS GPA isn't the greatest, around 3.3 cumulative, 3.2 BCPM. I've not taken Orgo or Biochem. The classes were upwards of five years ago. So part of me wishes to start fresh for the MCAT and so admissions committees can see me ace these classes now. Or should I redo only the classes in which I didn't do well, continue to take o-chem and biochem and attack on some more upper levels?" [05:33] Start Fresh You can't really start fresh because those grades are going to be there. You're going to have to report those. Any classes you're going to retake are going to be averaged in. Yes, you can redo some of the classes you didn't do well in and hopefully you get better grades in those and it's still going to be averaged. The only difference is you're not repeating all of the courses. It depends on whether you're talking about a formal postbac or do-it-yourself. If you're referring to a do-it-yourself, I probably wouldn't go back and repeat everything. Definitely repeat those with C's to try to get those up. Could you repeat everything and start fresh and hope for a 4.0? Sure, that's going to take a little longer and it's going to be more expensive although it may not be a problem for you financially having a husband who plays in the NFL. So it's awesome to have that financial stability. [06:57] Retake Classes Contact the school that you're applying to or interested in applying to. If you're applying to several medical schools, figure out if they're okay with older grades. I've talked to a lot of nontrads who have 10-year old and 20-year old grades. Some say it's not a problem and not to worry about it while others want something within five years. Moreover, retaking your classes would help you on the MCAT. The best way to start preparing for the MCAT is to do well in your undergrad, your core science courses. So if you retake those with a better foundation, better study habits, less time commitment, you will obviously do better. I don't know if I'd repeat them all. Repeat those C's of course and then figure everything else out. Keep that AMCAS calculator open to see how it's affecting your GPA. [08:18] Geographical Restriction "I'm terrified. My husband's career could be seen as a silent blessing for my journey because we have the financial security to support a family and allow me time for my studies without worry. However, there is one medical school in our city and is my first and foremost choice to attend because our families are here and we wish to continue to settle here. The risk is great for limiting myself to one school. And to be clear, it isn't just the geographical location of the school that makes it number one on my list. It is my top choice for many reasons. I'll save those for another post to reapplying year after year however. So if there is anyone out there who has advice on a perplexing situation such as mine, it would be helpful." [09:10] Applying to One School is Very Risky This is a unique situation with the poster's husband being in NFL and being in the city he is in now. Some of you may have that same situation since I've talked to spouses whose husbands and wives are in the military. You're in once city. But are you still going to be in that same city in two years? For this student, her husband in the NFL and they have trades in the NFL and cuts. Keep in mind that the limitation to one school is understandable to some extent but you're putting all your eggs in one basket. With the off-chance that your husband gets traded or let go or cut, whatever, immediately after you applied to that one school, what happens next? You move to another city and maintain your current residence in your current city. How does that work? Think about that as well. Applying to one school is very, very risky. [10:35] Talk to the Admissions Committee I helped a student this year who applied to two school. Last year, she applied to one and didn't get in. This year, she applied to two and she got into the original she wanted to go to. We made it work. So what I had her do is to go and talk to people. This poster talked about doing research for the cardiologist and doing tons of stuff. So go and talk to those people and let them know you're applying. Ask them who they know and who can you talk to. Go to the admissions committee. Talk to them and tell them why you want to come to that school and ask them what you need to do. They're going to be somewhat restrictive in what they can tell you. They can never guarantee you an acceptance but they can help guide you. They are there to help you. They want the best students to apply to their school and if they can help form that best student in you, why not? When you are going to a limited number of schools for whatever reasons, go and get to know the school as much as possible. [12:12] Form Great Connections Back in The Premed Years Podcast Episode 74, I talked with Carie, a nontrad premed. Her husband was a helicopter pilot for the army and contractor. So he was always being deployed and Carie was very limited taking care of family and working. She was very limited of what she could do. She also had some geographic restrictions and some issues with taking classes only at a community college. What she did was she formed great relationships with the admissions committees at a few school she was willing to apply to and told them who she was and what she was doing and asked for their feedback and she kept checking in with them semester after semester after semester and eventually she gained her acceptance into medical school. So go and form those connections because they're very important. Links: The Premed Years Podcast Session 168 The Premed Years Podcast Episode 74 MedEd Media Network The Premed Years Podcast The MCAT Podcast Specialty Stories

Session 75 This week’s poster is a practicing PA who has some questions about transitioning from being a PA to starting medical school. These are great questions commonly asked not only by PA’s, but also, by NPs and other nontrads who are in a healthcare-related field and would want to make that switch. [00:56] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "Just stumbled across this forum. Happy to see there are other nontrads getting back on the horse too. I have a few logistical questions I hope you all could help me with. Background: I'm currently a practicing PA in Emergency Medicine in the ICU for around four years, looking to make the switch to medical school for a number of reasons, which I'm happy to elaborate on if needed. Three kids with a work from home husband, undergrad major of chemistry with cumulative GPA of 4.0 and a PA grad school GPA also 4.0. All med school prereqs essentially met via PA school prereqs. Haven't taken the MCAT yet but started studying and plan to take in the next one to two years. Questions: Would it be more financially wise for me to work an extra three to four years, pay off debt, and save up for cost of living with my PA salary before applying to and starting medical school? Or would it be better to start sooner rather than later, let the debt build on holy amounts of interest throughout med school and residency and have med school debt added on top of that knowing that I'll be making more money sooner? Are there any legal issues or conflicts of interest against me picking up shifts as a PA while in medical school or working during med school in general? Do people do this? Do I really need to obtain shadowing hours given my experience practicing medicine everyday? Should I be going back to school just so I can get science LORs (Letters of Recommendation) or would it be sufficient to obtain letters of recommendation from my physician colleagues and PA faculty members?" These are great questions that a lot of students switching from a career from another healthcare-related field like a Physician Assistant or a nurse have. Let's dig into each of the questions and discuss them. [03:14] Making a Financial Decision Is it financially wise to wait a couple years or do you start sooner rather than later? Yes, it would be more financially wise to pay off the debt before actually accruing more debt. This is a personal question that's hard to answer since you really need to sit down with a financial advisor and look at the lost income from giving up your PA work while attending medical school and the income you'll be making as a resident (which is most likely going to be a lot less than working as a PA) and finally, your work as an attending. What would it take to break even and pay off all of that debt and what that would look like. Be able to work out some different scenarios. Therefore, it seems more financially sound and wise to wait a couple of years. Whether or not it's right for you, it's a personal question that only you can answer. Do you enjoy your job well enough now to give it a couple of years? Are you dead set on going to medical school? If you wait a couple of years, are you going to question that decision? Or should you just jump in now with both feet while you're ready and your husband supports you? These are some things to think about. [04:40] Legal Issues and Conflicts of Interest Are there any legal issues or conflicts of interest against picking up shifts as a PA while in medical school or working during med school in general? Yes, people do this. I recommend that you talk with the medical school as you are accepted and you go through that process. Make sure you're accepted first and then go through the process telling them about you going to medical school and whether you could pick up some shifts. Your ability to pick up shifts is going to be few and far between since medical school is going to be rigorous so being able to work is going to be hard. But it is possible. Your credentials, certifications, and schooling as a PA are fine. If you need to change state, you're going to need to re-license yourself and all of that stuff that goes with moving to a new state. But you should be able to work as a PA. However, be careful with the clear delineations of what you're doing and what scope of practice you're practicing under. Back in Episode 170 of The Premed Years Podcast, I talked with Brad who turned from PA to medical student and he shared his journey, why he was doing it, as well as practicing as a PA during medical school. [06:10] Shadowing Hours Do you need to obtain shadowing hours? Yes. Working as a PA side-by-side with physicians is not "shadowing" a physician. What you see working as a physician's assistant while 99.9% of it is going to be the same, go shadow for 10 or 20 hours. You don't actually need a ton of hours. Just go shadow and see what life is like when you're not working and you're able to just observe and take it all in. You've gotten through your education, PA's work side by side with physicians and even as you're practicing, so you understand it. Still, go get some shadowing hours so you can put it down on your extracurriculars. [06:57] Letters of Recommendation Do you need to go to school just to get science LORs? No, you don't. Most medical schools are going to recognize the fact that you're a nontraditional student. If you ask them, they will say they won't need those science LORs so go ahead and use a supervisor and anybody else who will write a great letter of recommendation for you. [07:26] Final Thoughts These are great questions a lot of nontrads have not just for PA's but those who are also in the medical field. If you have any questions you want answered here, go to www.OldPreMeds.org and register for a free account. Links: PMY 170: PA Turned MD Talks About Why He Made the Shift

Session 74 Our poster this week is questioning whether or not he should apply this cycle with low grades and not a lot of extracurriculars. He is getting very nervous about applying and getting some cold feet. If you have any questions, sign up for a free account at the OldPreMeds.org and join a collaborative community of like-minded students. [01:05] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I'm two years out of college with the hopes that I would have applied to medical last cycle (2016) to start in 2017. However, when the time came to send out my primary, I couldn't bring myself to do it. With a very low cumulative GPA of 3.05 and a science GPA of 3.25, a 502 MCAT and very, very few extracurriculars, I decided to wait a year and better my application. A year has come and gone and yet I still feel hesitant to apply. I have been working a job as an Emergency Room technician, volunteering in a hospital, and again preparing to take the MCAT. Even if I get an outstanding score on the MCAT, I feel that it will not be enough to get in. What is your advice? Do I apply anyways? Or do I spend another year in limbo and get a Master's or postbac while gaining more ECs (extracurriculars)?" [02:10] Your Numbers Are Just a Portion of Your Application This student is nervous about spending the money to apply to medical school without getting in. It's a legitimate concern, especially given the GPAs for this student which aren't great. Then a 502 MCAT with that MCAT isn't great. However, as I've mentioned in the past, the MCAT and GPA are just a portion of your application. So you can't only go on that. [03:00] Clinical Experience & Extracurriculars Episode 171 of The Premed Years Podcast, I had a discussion with a former Dean of Admissions at UC Irvine where she talked about a lack of clinical experience being one of the big reasons to not get into medical school. This poster obviously recognizes the fact that they lack some extracurriculars and got a job as an emergency room technician. Does this mean you're interacting with patients? If that's what you're doing then great. Taking the MCAT again is also great and you have to do well. [03:45] Taking Postbac Classes What I would have liked to see over the past year is you taking postbac classes. It doesn't have to be a formal postbac but doing ore classes to bring up your GPA from a 3.05 and get a cumulative up to 3.2 or 3.3 and your science GPA up higher around to 3.5. This would be fantastic and it would make an admissions committee think twice about that application. I had a great discussion with the Dean of Admissions at the University of Central Florida where we talked about nontraditional students who have done poorly in the past. He discussed how he looks at applications. He looks at the last 20 hours of science coursework and if you've done well in those last 20 hours, his assumption is you'll be fine in medical school. The poster did not give any trends on their grades. They may have an amazing upward trend but their cumulative GPA and science GPA are still lower. A lot more information would be helpful here but if you were able to take the MCAT and get a great score, apply. The only worst thing that could happen is them telling you no. Assume that your GPA is going to hold you back so start taking some classes and do that now. And get ready to apply again. The safer bet that a lot of students don't like to be classified as a reapplicant is usually an unfounded fear. Being a reapplicant doesn't hurt you. But on the safe side, you can continue working as an EMT in the hospital, take classes, and improve your GPA. Take the MCAT, do well on it and apply next year. [05:55] Final Thoughts There are so many variables that go into a good medical school application that can get overwhelming. What happened to this student is a common thing where you get shy about pulling a trigger and then you don't apply because you feel you're not good enough. Then a year goes by and you really didn't do much to adjust that so you're still not good enough and this becomes a cascading problem of never being good enough. So take those next steps. Figure out where you need to go and pull the trigger. Take some classes. Do whatever you need to do to improve that MCAT score and hopefully, you will put together successful application. Obviously, personal statement, extracurriculars, secondary essays, and interview prep all go into a great medical school application. Links: MedEd Media Network The Premed Years Podcast Episode 171: Reapplying to Medical School - What You Need to Know to Improve The Premed Years Podcast Episode 013: Interview with Dean of UCF College of Medicine UC Irvine School of Medicine University of Central Florida - College of Medicine

Session 72 The premed path is long and daunting. But what should you do if you’re so committed to becoming a doctor and yet you’re not able to translate that into having good grades? Our poster this week has struggled big time. Unfortunately, he still hasn't found a way to straighten out their grades. If you haven't already, please sign up for an account at the OldPreMeds.org and feel free to post some questions so we can have them answered here on the podcast. [01:10] OldPreMeds Question of the Week "I'm currently in a postbac program as my 'second chance' attempt. I graduated from my undergraduate program with a Biology degree but did horrible. I was not focused and my extra curricular activities were my priority. I ended up graduating with a 2.6 GPA. I know it would be a good idea for me to apply to a postbac program to show med schools that I actually can succeed in higher level science classes. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I always have something going on at home with family or I'm working a lot. I think I've been living where I am for so long that I just need a fresh start somewhere else with no distractions. And I only work because it's the only way I can provide for myself but it definitely takes away from my studies. I feel like I'm just a complete failure once again. I earned three C's, a D in the postbac program, which I know looks bad on my transcript but I'm taking the class over I got a D in. I'm most likely not even going to boost my undergraduate GPA over a 3.0 like I thought it would. I've faced the facts that my undergrad GPA will just not be competitive. Being a doctor is still my dream and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there even if I have to take a billion more steps than the average but is all hope lost for me? If not, what next steps could I take. Would doing a Master's program be smart? I know it will be difficult convincing any school of my capabilities but I'm ready to put in the work. Any suggestions would be amazing." Here Are My Thoughts: [02:57] Special Master’s Program Let's face the facts here. You have shown time and time again that you were not a good student. I'm not sure if taking a Master's coursework is going to fix that for you. What you need to fix is yourself. As you've mentioned, maybe you just need a fresh start somewhere and get rid of distractions. But you have to really ask yourself if that's going to give you the fresh start. Listen to Episode 230 of The Premed Years Podcast where I talked with Chad who was recently accepted to two medical schools. He was a lot like you who always had something going on and was never able to focus on coursework. He did terrible and didn't do well in his undergrad. He didn't do well in postbac and he got rejected from Caribbean medical schools. I even joked in that podcast that I didn't even know Caribbean schools rejected people but apparently, they do. Chad eventually went on to do a Special Master's Program (SMP), which is basically a Master's postbac. He did well and was accepted to the medical school associated with that SMP and was also accepted at another school. You could look into something like an SMP. But based on your track record, I’m not sure what's going to change. Perhaps you need to continue taking some undergraduate classes and make sure you're ready to commit to an SMP, which is going to be another $20,000 to $40,000. Don't take that next step unless you know you're ready and unless you have fixed yourself. [05:14] Focus on Being a Student In Episode 230 of The Premed Years Podcast, Chad said that he had to quit working then he actually found work that was flexible enough for him to go and do what he needed to do. But for the most part, he got rid of all his commitments and focused on being a student. He lived on food stamps and on different public assistance programs. And this is something for you to think about. What lengths can you go to so you can make sure you have food and shelter but also have time to study? [06:00] Final Words Fix those things. Make sure you're dedicated to being a student. Make sure you're just not a bad student and are making other excuses. Get rid of distractions. Take some classes. Do well in them and prove to yourself that you're ready for that next step. Then take that next step. Lastly, look into a Special Master's Program (SMP) which is the only Master's program I would look out for you. Do not do MPH and any other Master's program. Just go to an SMP if you can get into one. Links: OldPreMeds.org MedEd Media Network Premed Years Podcast Session 230: Rejected from the Caribbean! Now with a US Acceptance!

Session 70 The MCAT is hard. Being a nontrad and studying for the MCAT can seem impossible. Should you quit your job to study for the MCAT full-time? That is the question. We take your questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and answer them here on the podcast. If you haven't yet, sign up for an account and join this awesome community. [01:20] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I'm debating whether I should resign from my job or not. I graduated last year and have been balancing working a very full-time job, 40-50 hours a week, and MCAT studying. I've taken the old MCAT before the change happened in January and scored a 20 literally but I'm a very good student with a 3.97 GPA. I was taking a Kaplan course at that time while taking three science courses and thesis and cram-studied for 18 days. In retrospect, I needed to strategize and needed more time." Note: This student was obviously taking the January 2015 test and I'm assuming they cram-studied because they were trying to take the test prior to the change to the new MCAT. "I'm aiming to take the exam in January of 2017. I already unofficially pushed back the exam twice due to events at work and feel like I need to study head-on but I haven't seen much improvement despite on and off studying since last October. My biggest fear is quitting and not doing as well on the exam as I've hoped. But I'm also so tired when I come home from work and I know that something needs to change at work. Financially, I have about three months worth of rent for New York City and I;m concerned about finding a job to sustain me after my exam. But my main focus at this point is to do well on the exam and I don't want delay taking this exam anymore. I'm going to ask my employer if I can take a one-month leave of absence from late December to my January exam date and somehow find a way to use my vacation days so I can work three to four days a week. Would this be enough time to improve my score to 510+? My first Kaplan practice test score was 491. I'm determined to do well but for some reason, I'm not making much progress on this exam. Or is quitting your job for the exam worth it for the exam? Would med schools look unfavorably if I were to study for the MCAT head-on?” Here are my thoughts: [03:50] The MCAT is Like No Other I don't think med schools care if you quit your job and only studied for the MCAT. They just want to see you have a good grade. So you don't really want to worry about that. This student was good in school but bombed the MCAT, studying for 18 days and trying to cram in one of those last test dates in January 15, like every other student was trying to do and didn't do well with a 20. My first point is that the MCAT is not like any other test you're going to see in your life through your undergrad years or your postbac years. It doesn't care if you have a 3.97 GPA. All it cares about is how well you're going to do on the MCAT. So you need to well on the MCAT which means studying specifically for the MCAT and that also means studying for more than 18 days. [05:30] Take Many Practice Tests This was actually posted in August and the poster was looking at taking it in January and possibly taking a one month leave of absence to cram for the MCAT. I still consider one month as cramming for the MCAT. The goal is to take many practice tests. Go and listen to The MCAT Podcast, if you don't already, where you we cover topics like how long to study for the MCAT or how many practices tests should you take, and all of these types of questions. [06:18] Should You Quit Your Job? Every job is different. There is a difference between a librarian job which is relatively easy compared to this job that this poster has, working 40-50 hours a week and coming home too tired to study. That's a huge difference! Therefore, you need to take into account what your life is, your job life, and the amount of energy you have to give to prepare for the MCAT. Your priority would be MCAT but you obviously have to sustain yourself financially with living, food, and everything else. But this poster only has their three months worth of rent. So could you take on a room mate? Or go and live in with somebody? Adjust your lifestyle to make it a priority to study for the MCAT. [07:33] The Best Case Scenario The best case scenario is always studying full-time for the MCAT. But that is not reasonable for everyone and not a doable thing. So you need to be able to study as much as possible and that means you may have to adjust some things like going down to doing part-time, or going down to three or four days a week, or to four or five hours a day instead of 40-50 hours a week. [08:03] My Final Thoughts Again, the MCAT comes first. It doesn't matter if you quit your job and study full-time. The medical schools are not going to look at that negatively. One month is not enough time to study for the MCAT for most people. If you think about a normal study schedule, you're taking the unscored AAMC MCAT a week before your exam, you're taking one of their scored two weeks before the exam, you're taking one of their scored three weeks before the exam, and then you're taking four or five or six other full-length practice exams for the month before that. So you're looking at about two months minimum to start fitting in practice exams and doing everything else. As you can see, it takes some time so you need to plan it. Links: MedEdMedia Network The MCAT Podcast AAMC practice tests The MCAT Podcast 34: How Many MCAT Practice Tests Should I Take? The MCAT Podcast 37: How Do I Know If I’m Ready to Take the MCAT

Session 69 Taken directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums, today's question comes from Kyle, a student who's not really sure if he's interested in medicine. If you think you’re on the same boat as Kyle then all the more reason you should listen to this episode. This question basically relates a little bit to The Premed Years Session 229, where I spoke with Renee, a 54-year-old medical student. She was actually 53 when she reapplied to medical school. She was a former nurse turned nurse practitioner turned nurse educator and had a very successful career. But at the back of her mind, she has always wanted to be a physician. Through the encouragement of her kids, she actually went back and finally made a leap. Listen to her story about how she took the MCAT five times and had to reapply to medical school but was finally successful and is now a medical student. By the way, we have a new podcast coming up where we will be covering USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1, the first part of the board exams that you take as a medical student. Stay tuned as it will be out in a couple of weeks. [03:25] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: " I really need some objectivity right now. Up and down academic trend maybe 3.0 Science GPA, maybe a 3.1, graduated with a Allied Health degree, not strong GPA throughout program, finally picked it up final semester of my degree. Prereqs General Biology 1 - 3.7 after retake. General Biology 2 - 3.0. Postback, informal, very slow-paced right now. Chem 1 retake -4.0, Genetic - 4.0, Chem 2 - currently taking.  Here's the deal. I'm just not sure I really want to be a physician. There's a lot that goes into this thinking but fundamentally, I'm not sure I want to do what a doctor does. I've done volunteering, shadowing, etc. I like the science side of it and not really dealing with treating or caring for people. I've gone from pre-nursing, pre-pharm, to premed throughout my academic career and currently in a health profession that is none of those but I'm enjoying my job. Who else out there is struggling with this doubt? But it's not just doubt in my abilities, work ethic, time to do this while working full time. But like I said, fundamentally, I don't think I want that role like I once did. If someone was there before, what brought you back to pursue medicine? You hear that cliche that if you can see yourself doing something other than being a doctor, then don't become a doctor. This has been an ongoing multi-year, multi-seasoned fight and I just don't know if I have what it takes nor if I really want this." [05:07] Here are my thoughts: The short answer is go find something else to do. It's as simple as that. The role of a physician is very much ingrained in patient care. When you say you're not sure you want to do what a doctor does and that you really don't like dealing with treating or caring for people, that right there tells me that you should not be a doctor. And that's is truly okay. I talk about it on The Premed Years Podcast all the time that it is great to realize that you don't want to be a doctor because it's a long, hard, and expensive process. Then in the end, a lot of physicians actually question whether it was all worth it and a lot of physicians do not like being a doctor anymore. So for you to find this out now is great! Go find something else that you love to do. It doesn't even have to be in health care. You've talked about going from pre-nursing to pre-pharm to premed. Get out of medicine altogether and find something else that you really love. [06:35] A Farewell to Being Premed If you're struggling with similar things as Kyle is, I highly recommend you listen to Session 29 of The OldPreMeds Podcast where I read a post from somebody who wrote a farewell letter to being a premed. It's a great post from somebody who realized that it wasn't just what they wanted anymore. And that's okay. Going back to Kyle, congratulations for figuring this out. Go enjoy whatever it is that you're meant to do. Go find it. Links: OldPreMeds.org The Premed Years Podcast Specialty Stories Podcast The Premed Years Podcast Session 229: 54-Year-Old Med Student Overcame 5 MCAT s, Rejection, and More The OldPreMeds Podcast Session 29: A Farewell Letter to Being Premed

Session 68 Our poster this week is trying to decide between two postbac programs in New York and is worried about picking one that may be looked less upon based on the name. We take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and answer them here on the podcast. "Old premed” is a relative term as you could be a 23-year-old “old premed” or be a 40, 50, or even 60-year-old “old premed.” In this case, an old premed refers to a nontraditional premed student. So if you consider yourself one (or even if you're a traditional student), you are welcome to be a part of our community and we'll be happy to answer any questions from you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I'm having a hard time deciding between Fordham or Hunter for my postbac. While Hunter is cheaper, I do not want to get caught up in their bad bureaucracy or have to take an extra semester because I couldn't get a class seat. Additionally, I cannot apply to Hunter until January versus my Fordham admissions rep saying he would process my application in two weeks and I can start this summer. It's more risky applying to Hunter and I don't want to delay my goals for a year on the chance I might not get in. Fordham's night and weekend classes would usually free up my schedule for shadowing and volunteering while letting me study during my peak hours as a morning person. Hunter seems to offer more resources, guest lectures, advising. Both programs offer committee letters. My biggest fear is Fordham won't be prestigious enough and harm my application. Is my final GPA truly what med schools care most about?" Here are my insights: [03:06] Is It Good Enough? This comes up a lot when parents and students try to decide which institution to go to for undergrad, for postbac, or for medical school because you're worrying about the name of the school and how it will affect your application to medical school or residency. "Is it good enough?" That is the never-ending cycle of question. My simple answer is - Yes. It is good enough. Schools are accepting students from all over the country and the world. They are taking students from community colleges or rural liberal arts schools. They are also taking students from the big names like Harvard. And it's based on numbers. My alma mater, the University of Florida, has one of the largest state schools in the country and they typically produce the most medical school matriculants every year. It's a huge, well-known state school and it's not known for the academics, in fact, it's one of the top party schools. But it's still a great school that produces a lot of students. Hence, it's not the name of the institution that you will be judged upon by medical schools. [05:06] How to Choose Your School Sure, there are medical schools that would look at an institution’s name and some admissions committee members may have their biases. But this should not be the driving factor in your decision, but rather, everything else that you talked about in terms of how it works with your schedule, how it fits with your internal clock as a morning person, etc. This is how you should be judging these things and not based on the institution's prestige. On The Premed Years Podcast, I talk a lot about choosing a school that will make you great, not choosing a great school. Just because a certain school has a great name attached to it doesn't mean you will flourish there. You need to choose a school that will help you be great and will let you shine. Links: OldPreMeds.org The Premed Years Podcast University of Florida Fordham University Hunter University  

Session 67 This week’s question is all about shadowing, basically some do’s and don’ts to make sure you get the most out of your shadowing experience. We take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums. If you haven't yet, go register for an account. It's free and easy. Feel free to ask questions. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: From Lydia: "I'm preparing for my first shadowing experience. I'll be shadowing a heme/oncologist MD. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make the most of my experience. I'm planning on bringing a notebook and some good questions. Any other ideas or suggestions or must-ask questions? Thanks!" Here are my insights: [01:34] Shadowing and Clinical Experience Shadowing is so important in the game of premed life in order for you to understand what medicine is like. However, please note that shadowing and clinical experience are two different things. Clinical experience involves hands-on interaction with patients where you help them do things and talk to them. Hence, you are really interacting with them. Shadowing, on the other hand, is supposed to be a very passive experience where you're literally a shadow because you're there standing in a corner or behind the physician or beside the physician to just watch and observe. You're not there to ask questions during the patient interaction. You're not there to talk to the patients. Some physicians, however, are okay with students who shadow to do exams on the patient, if the patient allows it obviously. Some physicians will ask your thoughts during an exam or during taking a patient's history.  Basically, every physician is different. So just go in with the assumption that you're only going to stand there, watch, and be silent. Your opportunity to ask questions to the physician happens afters the patient encounter  but only if they allow you to. Some physicians won't give you any time to ask questions while other physicians will let you ask questions in between every patients. But just go in with the assumption that you won't be able to ask questions or interact in any way and that you're just going to be following the physician around. Anything else that is above and beyond that assumption is great. [03:57] What to Bring Don't go in with anything (notebook, pens, paper, etc.) unless it's a tiny book that will fit in your pocket. You're going in dressed up in business casual unless you're told something else by the physician or the clinic where you're shadowing. Go in with as little as possible so that you are not burdening the clinic with needing to store your stuff. Leave your backpack or purse in the car. Go in with nothing. The less you have, the better. [05:05] Questions to Ask Let the questions come to you naturally as you leave. Don't go in with a list of questions with what medicine is like and what life is like. Just ask questions at the end of the day about what you saw that day or the process  you saw during that day. As you build that relationship, more and more of these questions can come. Ask questions about the patient at the end of the day. Do not ask a generic list of questions because that is not necessary. [05:50] Taking Notes As you're done for the day, you may now get your notebook out and start journaling -physician's name, dates and times, what you saw, what left an impression on you, what made an impact on you, diseases you've seen, the kind of patient interaction the physician had, what you liked or not liked about what you saw that day, what could have been done better or different. Write those things down and be sure to keep a journal of all your interactions of shadowing, volunteering  (even including the non-medical stuff). Keep a journal of all your experiences because this can help you with filling out your AMCAS application, AACOMAS application, or the Texas Medical and Dental Application Service in that you have these memories and notes to go back to. Links: OldPreMeds.org The Premed Years Podcast MedEd Media Network AMCAS application ACOMAS application Texas Medical and Dental Application Serviced Media Network

Session 66 This week, a student asked about retaking old prerequisite classes that they previously did well in, hoping to better prepare for the MCAT. The classes that the poster has been considering to take, however, are online. What are the options? If you have any questions, register for an account at OldPreMeds.org and join the collaborative community there. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I am 'stuffling' (I wasn’t really sure what the poster meant by this word) in deciding whether or not to retake my science courses online. I took most classes, bio and general chem, about ten years ago and recently took some courses to prep for the MCAT. I took the MCAT two years ago and scored a 500. I want to retake all science classes to help me prepare better for the MCAT. Unfortunately, I can't do daytime classes because I work and I have a family to support and the schools where I live do not offer these classes in the evening. Will it be okay if I took these classes online? Will medical schools accept them or am I better off not retaking these courses. My science GPA is 3.7 and my overall is 3.9.  I really want to apply to medical school as soon as possible as I'm 31. But I really need a bit more review on physics because that is my weakest point. Any advice would be helpful." Here are my thoughts: [03:00] Prerequisite Classes Retaking the MCAT is obviously a huge endeavor. 500 is not a great score but it's a score and a 3.7/3.9 is a great GPA. Interestingly, you only mentioned Bio and General chemistry so I'm wondering if you really understand all the prereqs for medical school. Now with the new MCAT, it's not just Biology but also, Psychology, Sociology, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry. Some of the medical schools are adding some of those Psychology and Sociology classes to their prereqs so that's something to look into. [04:00] Taking Online Prereqs If you go back to OPM Session 18, it talks about online degrees. But the person here is just taking online courses to supplement her previous courses in order to give her a better foundation for the MCAT. My biggest piece of advice is to look into the MSAR (for MD schools) and look at the requirements for each of the schools since they will tell you whether or not they accept online courses. In this situation, you did well in your courses to begin with (assuming you did all of the prereqs) so let's say you're taking these online courses not to boost your GPA but as a refresher. This is something you have to ask the medical about. Reach out to the school and present your situation telling them you did well in your previous classes. Since they're older, are they going to take these older classes? And would it be okay if you took these online courses now not for boosting your GPA but really just to prepare for the MCAT. [05:52] MCAT Prep Course Another option is just to apply and see what happens. 500 is not a great score but it's the average MCAT score so it will limit what schools will look at you. The last options is spend the money on a MCAT prep course instead of online courses and use the MCAT prep course materials to relearn the information you need to learn. Personally, this would be the route I would take. I would self-teach myself, use Khan Academy videos online, and take a look at the Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) from Stanford University for example and see if they have any Physics courses online for free. I'd take a look at whatever online resources are out there and self-teach myself through those online resources and through the study material from these courses. Check out Next Step Test Prep, specifically their new MCAT class where they teach you the material online and at your own pace. They also have online office hours five days a week to have your questions answered. Compared to other big-named companies, they have more materials and they're much cheaper. Save some money by using the code MSHQ. Links: Next Step Test Prep OPM Session 18 MSAR Khan Academy Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) MedEd Media Network OldPreMeds.org The Premed Years Podcast The MCAT Podcast Specialty Stories Podcast The Short Coat Podcast

Session 65 Our poster today is a working mom who fell into a very common premed trap of trying to compare her stats to those of others students. The problem is, it doesn’t work that way! If you have any questions that you would like answered here on The OldPreMeds Podcast, go to the OldPremeds.org, sign up for an account and join in their collaborative environment. [01:23] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "First off, I am so happy to have found this site. I found my way here, thanks to The Premed Years Podcast. I am a 29-year-old working mom, I have two young children and who has been in the environmental health and safety industry mainly for manufacturing companies for about six years. I originally applied to medical school in 2008 but I call it a wimpy effort at best. By the time I finished my undergrad, I was not very confident in my dreams or my commitment to four plus additional years in school, and ended up taking my backup plan (Kindly listen to The Premed Years Podcast to know my thoughts on having a backup plan). I got my Master’s in Environmental Talks and immediately started working after graduation. Over the years, the realization that medicine was in fact my dream has become a lot more obvious, but I have never felt like there was a good time to transition. About six months ago, I bit the bullet and signed up to retake the MCAT. I took it January 28th so I’ll be receiving my scores at the end of February. My plan is to apply early for the 2018 cycle. My stats are potentially competitive, 3.9 undergrad GPA and 3.6 graduate, along with a good community service history and participation in undergrad grad research and shadowing. I’m not super confident that I did well on the MCAT and I am trying to gauge the point at which I decide that I will not submit an application. I’m applying to an allopathic program if that makes any difference. Does anyone mind sharing their own stats and/or opinion of a threshold MCAT score for applying?" Here are my insights: [3:10] Trust Yourself, Trust Your Stats It does not matter what other people’s stats are. The only person you're competing against to get into medical school is yourself. You need to trust yourself. You need to trust your stats and know that stats are only part of the application. A 3.9 undergrad GPA is great. A 3.6 graduate GPA is good. An MCAT score is one part of a puzzle for a full application. A 29-year-old working mom will have a great story to tell if she tells it properly. Here’s the biggest part of the application that people miss. You have to tell that story about the nontraditional journey that you have been on that separates you from everybody else. What makes you special? It’s not your MCAT score. But it’s your story, your journey, your path. That’s the story that you need to tell. It doesn’t matter what your MCAT score is. [4:39] Applying to Only One School Might Hurt Your Chances One thing that stood out in this question. This student said that she was applying to an allopathic program. One program. This is a huge mistake. I understand that students, especially nontraditional students, have challenges such as location restrictions. And if you're a working mom, you're married, and your husband has a job and can’t relocate and the kids are firmly integrated in the schools and cannot relocate, then applying to one school is going to be a huge, HUGE risk. If I were that mom, I would then have serious conversations with my husband and with the kids, and clearly explain to them that I may have to move alone for a little while or all of us may have to move and start afresh so I can fulfill my dream of becoming a physician. It is a huge challenge, a huge risk to apply to only one medical school. The average number of applications for MD schools is 14 to 15 as well for DO schools. Assuming most students apply to both MD and DO schools then that would mean applying to thirty schools. [06:27] Applying Broadly and Other Things to Consider It’s a lot of schools. It’s a lot of money. But every school is looking for something different. Every school is looking for a part of the community that they’re trying to build. As a 29-year-old working mom, the student who posted this question may fit in great at one school (regardless of her stats) because of her background as a working mom and her life experience. But it might be a school that’s two states away and this is also something you need to take into account when applying to medical school. As a nontraditional applicant, it’s hard to think about applying broadly when you have a husband, or a wife, or other significant others and kids, and you're thinking about moving them. And so there are lots of things to think about when it comes to that. [07:22] My Final Thoughts Other people’s stats absolutely do not matter. Your 3.9 and 3.6 are not my 3.9 and 3.6 and 510 on the MCAT. If you've got a 510 on the MCAT and we had the same exact stats, it does not matter because your story is different than mine. Stop trying to compare yourself or compare your stats to other students. They don’t compute. There is no correlation between your stats and somebody else’s stats. Just stop it. Links and Other Resources: MedEd Media Network OldPreMeds.org The Premed Years Podcast Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save some money on full-length practice exams, their online courses, and their one-on-one tutoring.) The Premed Years Podcast Session 213: Stop Looking for a Backup Plan, It's Hurting Your Chances

Session 64 We take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forum and deliver the answers right here to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I'm about to graduate from college this upcoming May and would like to apply to medical schools. I wanted to apply to linkage programs so I can get into medical school without having to take the MCAT. I still have not taken the MCAT. However, I cannot apply to postbac programs because I've taken all the premed courses and have done very well in them. So that eliminates any postbac linkage programs. I know there are tons of linkage programs for undergrad sophomores and juniors but since I'm no longer a sophomore or junior, what other options do I have besides applying to medical school the regular way?" Here are my insights: [02:45] Thinking Outside the Box The MCAT is a beast of its own and that's why you have resources like The MCAT Podcast to help make taking the MCAT easier for you. If you haven't yet, go check it out. It's a podcast I do with Next Step Test Prep, a test prep company that offers one-on-one tutoring as well as 10 full-length practice tests for the new MCAT. They also have a brand new course which they've set out. (Use the code MSHQ to save some money on their products and services). [03:35] Ways to Get Into Medical School There are a couple of ways to get into medical school. First is the traditional route which involves applying at the end of your junior year or beginning of your senior year for entrance the following year. So there's no break between undergrad and medical school except for a summer off. Within that normal route, you will have take the MCAT. [04:03] Early Acceptance Programs Perhaps the more appropriate term to use rather than a linkage program is "early acceptance." For most of these programs you apply during your sophomore or junior year. For some schools, you don't have to take the MCAT. While for others, you still have to take the MCAT provided that you have a minimum score to still be accepted into medical school. My undergrad institution, University of Florida has the Junior Honors Medical Program where you apply as a sophomore and they look at your SAT score and the first couple years of your undergrad classes. I think you have to take the MCAT on that one. [4:53] Programs without MCAT Requirement There are programs out there where you don't have to take the MCAT.  I recently helped a student get into A.T. Still University where they have an early acceptance program and she no longer has to take the MCAT and got her early acceptance. [5:05] What Are the Options for Nontraditional Students? If you're listening to this as a nontraditional student, those options are probably not going to be available for you. Instead, you can look into postbac programs, which are there to help increase your grades if you started off poorly and then you've decided to come back and work harder. These are grade-enhancing programs that allow you to go back and take these prerequisite courses over again. Some of those programs will have linkages to medical schools. There are also Special Master’s Programs that have linkages to medical schools. These are master degree programs to help you improve your grades so you can prove to medical schools that you can handle the curriculum. I really wouldn’t recommend taking it as these programs can be very expensive. Also, in a lot of these programs, you will have to take some classes with the first year medical students. [6:45] Take the MCAT. Take a Prep Course. If you've done well in your classes, there is no reason to avoid taking the MCAT. Bite the bullet. MCAT is a necessary evil. If you've done well in your undergrad classes, that is the number one way to prepare for the MCAT. So go back and relearn that material. Take a prep course such as Next Step Test Prep and use the code MSHQ. Just take the MCAT and you will be fine. Links and Other Resources: OldPreMed.org MedEd Media Network The Premed Years The MCAT Podcast Specialty Stories Podcast Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save money off their offerings.) University of Florida - Junior Honors Medical Program If you're on any social media platform, use #tripod and let people know all about The OldPreMeds Podcast.

Session 63 Our poster today is a former student interested in optometry but is now trying to pursue medicine. A poor MCAT score is holding him back though plus his premed advisor told him he had zero percent chance of getting into medical school due to lack of research experience. Is research really necessary? How else can you improve your application given these circumstances? The OldPreMeds community has been around for a long time helping nontraditional students like yourself on their journey to and through medical school. If you haven’t yet, sign up for an account today and if you have any questions, ask away. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Today’s post is one from Louis Gonzalez. "I am 27 years old. I have put off going to medical school for the last five years due to personal and family reasons. I’ve been taking care of my sister who developed a form of psychosis back in the spring of 2013 and I was my grandmother’s caretaker during her fatal bout with liver cancer in 2014. I was trying for optometry school but after shadowing several optometrists, I just don’t think that it was the correct field for me. I graduated in 2011 with a 3.4 science GPA and a 3.7 accumulative GPA. I, at this time, only have 450 hours of volunteering and three years worth of science tutoring biology, microbiology, chemistry and organic chemistry. Tutoring at the local community college near my home, I can’t travel that far due to my sister’s health. I did have shadowing experience but the doctor I shadowed back in 2011 doesn’t have an office in this state anymore. I know I’ll have to start shadowing and taking my MCAT. I got 23 on the 2012 MCAT, but what else should I do to prepare my application? I’m taking my MCAT in mid-August. So is it a good idea to get letters of recommendation right now and apply late? Or wait until next year and ask those professors in early 2018 to write letters of recommendation? Also, is research necessary? I went back to talk to an advisor at my university about applying to medical school in December, but she told me that I had a 0% chance of getting into medical school at this point due to my lack of research. Overall,any advice would be most helpful." Here are my insights: [03:15] Zero Percent Chance and Research Experience First of all, as much as I love premed advisors, I just have to disagree with "0% chance" of getting into medical school because zero percent chance is never the answer. Anyway, do you have to have research? No. It’s a tricky thing because when you’re applying to medical schools and you’re looking at the MSAR and the College Information Book, you'd see various breakdowns of students that were accepted including what percentage of them had research. And it’s a large majority. But the bottom line is that you do not have to have research. If you’re interested in research, great and go seek it out. I highly recommend you go and get research because it’s interesting and just to see if you might like it or not. It's very easy just like any other experience of shadowing or getting clinical experience.You could either do laboratory research or clinical research wherein you’re helping a physician do some data analysis on their patients. Again, you don’t have to have research but I would recommend you get it or at least "dip your toes" in it for a little bit to see if you like it. [04:45] Older Prereqs and Preparing for the MCAT Your GPA scores, volunteering experience, and science tutoring are great. Your prerequisites are a little bit older (take a listen to OPM 62) but it's probably still okay. I recommend you check in with each of the schools you're interested in applying to just to make sure they're okay with having some older prereqs. Just as I talked about last week, you got a 23 on the MCAT so it may help you on the new MCAT to take some more courses to help solidify your knowledge of the sciences that are going to be tested on the MCAT. But it comes down to you just not understanding what the MCAT is all about. For this reason, I would highly recommend looking into a Next Step Test Prep or another one-on-one tutoring company. If you decide to go with Next Step Test Prep, use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring programs. You really need to understand how to take the MCAT to do well on it. [06:02] Application Timeline & Letters of Recommendation If you plan to apply this year (2017) and take the test in August, I would recommend that you don't apply this year. August is too late to apply this year. It’s not a 0% chance but I would never recommend to anybody that’s applying in 2017 to take the MCAT in August of 2017 because your application is not going to be complete until a month after that. By that time, you’re several months behind and most medical schools are going to have the people they want to interview already lined up and ready to go. They're just waiting for those last few really top notch applications to come through before the deadline, which is usually at the end of October. So if you have to take the MCAT in August or mid-August, I would delay applying until 2018. Regarding letters of recommendation, start asking for them around February and have your letter writers submit their letters for 2018, applying in June of 2018. [07:22] Shadowing and Clinical Experience Look into some more shadowing and more clinical experience since admissions committees want to see sustained engagement in the medical field. While you had a volunteering a while ago, you didn't mention what type of volunteering it is so I'm going to assume it's not medically related. Get some clinical experience being around patients just to make sure this is really what you want to do. Lastly, I'm glad that you pointed out that you decided not to apply for optometry after shadowing optometrists. This is the very reason medical schools want to see some shadowing experience from students in order to get that same feel and that gut feeling whether to go for it or not. Links: The Short Coat Podcast MedEd Media Network MSAR College Information Book OPM 62: What Should I Focus on With Old Prereqs and ECs? Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring programs.)

Session 62 My name is Dr. Ryan Gray and I am the Director of the National Society for Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students, also known as OldPreMeds. Taken directly from the forums at OldPreMeds.org, our question this week comes from a nontraditional student who took a lot of classes many years ago and is wondering what's the best route to take to get back into the premed game. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I’m new here and so glad to have found this site. I graduated with a science degree in 2000 at a competitive school, and while I was interested in medicine and took all the premed required courses and had around a 3.5 GPA, I wasn’t sure about my passion for it, and frankly not mature enough for that commitment. Instead, I got an MPH in Health Management and have been in the field ever since working in health IT, management consulting, and currently working at a hospital managing a department. But after seventeen years of working in healthcare, I want to move from being in the support services and management to being a care provider, and looking to explore getting an MD or a DO. I should also mention that I’m married and have two young kids, so certainly this is a decision that would disrupt all our lives. I know my coursework is outdated but what options should I pursue? I contacted one postbac program near me and they said I would qualify for their two-year-career changer program and would have to retake all my old courses, and that a lot of schools want to see all course requirements done within the last five years. I really don’t want to take two years to retake coursework and have been reading about do-it-yourself postbacs, but I am unclear on how many courses to take and what courses to take for that matter to make me a more attractive candidate. I’m looking at the websites of schools near me, I live in southern California, but it seems unclear. Also would I need to take any extracurriculars? I work in healthcare, and while I’m not a provider, I know a lot of the ins and outs, sacrifices and dedication needed. It’s been a long while but in the past, pre-marriage and pre-kids, I volunteered for hospice and enjoyed it. Extracurriculars would be tough with kids so I’m hoping to avoid it if possible. I’m just starting this process so any advice is welcome." Here are my insights: This is an example of someone who has been having that itch of getting into medical school that has never really gone away, which is common to a lot of nontraditional premed students. [3:40] Taking Postbacs & Working Full-Time or Part-Time Now that you have your wife and kids, the question is, can you afford to stop working to take classes full-time? When I recently attended University of Central Florida's Medical School Admissions Symposium, I had dinner with a bunch of premeds and nontrad premeds and talked with Cain (listen to his journey on The Premed Years Podcast Session 174). Now a first year medical student, Cain was also a nontrad premed who was working full time. At dinner, he mentioned that he wished he would have been more intentional and that he should have pulled that trigger a little bit sooner to stop working full time and jump back into his courses. So this is something you need to think about whether you really want to commit and reduce your workload and go part time (if you can), or quit altogether and rely on your spouse's income (if possible). [05:45] Retaking Coursework The fact that your prereqs are 17 years old, that can and will play a role in many schools accepting you. While I agree that schools like to see coursework done within five years, I don't know if I would say “a lot of schools.” I’d say, there are some schools out there that would want to see newer coursework. Newer coursework is going to help prepare for the MCAT as this is going to be the big hurdle. Hence, retaking the coursework to prepare for the MCAT is something you might want to think about. [06: 25] Extracurriculars If location is an issue and you can only go to a handful medical schools then start to get to know them and reach out to them. Explain to medical schools your situation and ask them. I've talked with the Dean of Admissions at UCF when I was there for the symposium and he mentioned that they love nontraditional students because they add so much to the class. He also said that when they're looking at an application, they do look at what your responsibilities are as you're going through these process. So if you have a family and a job, they're not going to assume you have all extra time to go and do all these crazy extracurriculars. So think about how much time have you got for all of this stuff. Are you able to quit your job? Or call these schools to see what they say. Medical schools have different ways of looking at students so reach out to them and find out. Even if you have healthcare work experience, it doesn't mean you fully understand what it's like to be a physician. So you need to shadow some physicians to get that experience of what it's like to be one. As a healthcare administrator, you're probably not around with patients a lot so you need to put yourself in clinical situations. Try to put yourself around as many patients as you can and get that experience of being around sick people again to make sure you enjoy it. [08:45] Retaking Classes to Prepare for the MCAT You have a couple options to take. You can go to a formal do-it-yourself postbac which can be very costly and can take you a year or two to do it. You can also take a do-it-yourself postbac and pick and choose the classes you want to retake. But do this only after making sure that it's okay with them that you're not retaking all of your prereqs (because maybe they just want to see whether you've still got science under your belt and prove to them that you can handle the load and coursework.) As I’ve already mentioned, the first step is to reach out to the schools you’re interested in applying to and ask them. Tell them your situation and go from there. Links: MedEd Media Network University of Central Florida - Medical School Admissions Symposium The Premed Years Podcast Session 174: Academically Dismissed to Medical Acceptance (My interview with Cain)

Session 61 Our question this week comes directly from OldPreMeds forums. Our poster wants to know how adcoms will view his or her application as a 50-year-old. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I am 50+ years old and I have a deep desire to apply to medical school. Although I majored in biology and acquired a Master's in biology over 20 years ago, I have done so to pursue clinical research and biotechnology. However, I recently completed a Master's in Health Technology and the new medical initiatives in reform of Medical Care through the ACA has really sparked my interest to serve as a physician, making healthcare accessible to all. Is it practical for one over 50 to apply to medical school? How favorable does the admissions committee look at older medical applicants?" Here are my insights: [01:45] Health Care Access to All Making healthcare accessible to all is a great desire but a physician has a small part in that. It's good for a policy maker like getting involved through an MPH in making policy and figuring out how to better help the community access healthcare. A physician, however, has a very small role in making healthcare accessible to all. You can actually make it accessible to a small percentage of patients you see. While you may be serving those underserved, it is still a small portion of the total population. Think about your desires and what it is that you truly want to do.Figure out if it really is being a physician that will make that difference. Being a physician, you only get to take care of one patient at a time so making health care "accessible to all" doesn't really fit into that. If you truly want to be a physician then great but I would question your motives to be a physician if your desire is to make healthcare accessible to all. Think through that. [03:22] Health Care Reform This post was posted on December 2016 after Donald Trump had won the election before he had taken the oath and became President and had signed the Executive Orders to start dismantling the Affordable Care Act. If you're interested in medicine because of what the ACA has done, realize that it's going to look totally different by the time you become a doctor. I have to warn you based on your current ideas and thoughts because if you're applying because you love the ACA and you want to make healthcare accessible to all, medicine is going to look completely different by the time you apply to medical school as well as by the time you get out and start practicing and go through residency and so on. You really have to do this for the right reason, which is usually to take care of patients one at a time regardless of how the healthcare system looks. [04:50] Question on Age Your age is going to raise some yellow flags, which means people are going to question your desires because they want to make sure you're doing this for the right reasons. Some medical schools will be biased and would not want to accept you due to your age. Why give a spot to a 50 years old when they can give it to a 20+ years old that's going to have 30 years more work than you may have? So there will be this kind of thoughts out there. But every year, we hear stories of 50-year-old's or even 60-year-old's starting medical school. So it is possible. Go back and listen to The Premed Years Podcast Session 11, where I interviewed Kate, a 56-year-old third year medical student so she started medical school at 53. [06:15] My Final Thoughts I encourage you to continue on exploring why you want to go through this and if this is what you really want then push full steam ahead. Some school might frown upon it, other schools are going to look highly upon it. But it only takes one school to say yes. So keep digging and keep pushing forward if that is what you're really interested in. [07:07] MCAT Prep Help If you need help with MCAT prep, I highly recommend Next Step Test Prep. They are known for their one-on-one tutoring, which is what I would have gone through for MCAT prep if I had to do it all over again. With basically the same price as an in-person Kaplan or Princeton review, Next Step can give you a one-on-one tutor to help you figure out how to take the MCAT. Use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring, full-length practice tests, and their new online course. Plus you get live office hours with the people that wrote that test. Links: OldPreMeds Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save money) The Premed Years Podcast Session 11: Interview with a 56-Year-Old Medical Student Affordable Care Act The Premed Years Podcast The MCAT Podcast Specialty Stories Podcast MedEd Media Network ryan@medicalschoolhq.net

Session 60 Taken directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums, today's question comes from a 30-year-old nontraditional student with a professional background in pharmaceuticals and now she's looking at changing her career and committing to medical oncology. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: "I am so happy to have found this community. I am 30 years old with a professional background in pharmaceuticals, formerly a QC Chemist, and currently an oncology R&D project manager, and an academic background in microbiology, a B.S. with a GPA 3.3/4.0, and business MBA 3.8/4.0. Fairly recently, difficult life experiences have helped align my priorities and have increased my desire to help people who are suffering. Because of my interest in solving complex problems, my desire to aid people in life and death situations and my passion to contribute to a relatively nascent scientific field, I believe that I can best serve patients as a medical oncologist. Although I really enjoy my current job, I feel a strong urge to contribute to the enrichment of patient's well-being on a more intimate level. My goal is to decide whether or not to commit to the medical school route by the end of February. To aid in this decision, I have spoken to a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) resident and an Oncology Fellow, and am setting up time to shadow physicians. I am also trying to better understand what would be required for me to be a strong medical school candidate. I would apply in 2018. Does anyone have suggestions they’d like to share? I believe I’d need to take some classes to boost my undergraduate GPA and would need to attain a very strong MCAT score, and would need to start volunteering in a clinic. I want to be sure that if I applied to medical school in 2018 I will be seriously considered so I can start my training as soon as possible." Here are my insights: [03:10] Shadowing, Volunteering, and Clinical Experience The poster has a great background for wanting to enter medicine. She has been exposed to one side of medicine but found a passion to work closer with patients. I would be wary of talking to residents and fellows and medical students about their experiences because you're practically talking to them at the worst possible times in their life. A fellow is probably a little bit less stressed out but the resident is going to be super stressed out so they may not have the best advice for you. Medical students are also going through a tough time in their life. Hence, I am here to give you an advice, who is on the other side where things have already calmed down and you’re done with training. If you're interested in that, the best thing to do is to start shadowing physicians so you can get one-off experiences and their points of view. The best way to tell you if you're going to like the life of a physician is to experience it yourself though shadowing, seeing, and observing in the sense of what it's like to interact with patients. Volunteering is important as well as getting that clinical experience, being around patients and interacting with them. Making sure that you like being around sick people is very important. [05:15] MCAT and Coursework You're going to need a good MCAT score. Your GPA is okay. Having a Microbiology degree, 3.3 is not a great GPA so retaking some of your courses will help boost your GPA assuming you do well in those classes. Do what is easiest for you. Taking them at a community college is fine especially when you're working full time. Taking night classes offered at your local four-year university is fine too. Taking those classes will help prepare you for the MCAT which is going to be the biggest hurdle for you. [06:00] Final Thoughts Shadow. Make sure this is right for you. It's not the end of the world if you don't get in considering that it sounds like you like your current job. But if you truly want to go down this path and really decide to be a physician, then even if you don't get in your first year, figure out why and reapply. Links: OldPreMeds.org MedEd Media Network Shoot me an email at ryan@medicalschoohq.net

Session 59 In this episode, Ryan takes a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and delivers the answer right here to you. This week’s question is an interesting one:choosing which schools to apply to. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: “I was looking into residency match rates of DO versus MD programs using the school website and comparing them to an NRMP. I noticed that the 2016 data for DO match rate was 80.3% versus 93.8% for MD. When I look at the data from DO schools like Western and Touro I find reports of 90% to 100% match rates. Is the difference because of the schools and the 80.3% looks at all DO programs? Should one look at the individual school match rate instead of the overall match rate when choosing a program? If anyone has information about the discrepancies please let me know”. (2:00) Questioning the data I dug into this a little bit to figure out where this person was getting their data. I pulled up the information from the American Osteopathic Association Intern and Residency Registration Program match data; this is the matching system for DO students. I also looked at the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) that matches for MD residencies. So just to backtrack and give you a little information: two different tracks, DO and MD. A DO is doctor of osteopathic medicine, MD is a medical doctor, just two different types of medical school. You both end up being physicians at the end of the day; there's really no difference and actually, their residency programs are merging. Not a lot of information has come out on how that's going to happen, but I believe the year is 2020 when that happens. Therefore, much of this information, by the time you start medical school and as you're listening to this, perhaps won’t matter because much of it will have changed. However, I still wanted to reply to this question because I thought it was a good one. Here’s my take on this question:  (3:20) Match Rates This student is claiming the 2016 data for DO match rate was 80.3%. However, when I bring up the 2016 match data, I see an unmatch rate of 13% - which is a match rate of 87%. So I'm not sure where this student was coming up with 80.3%. If you just look up DO match rates for 2016, the website comes up and it's the match data for the DO applications and has a list of every school. The highest school on here, the highest non-match school is at 28.6%, so that's a match rate of 71.4% which isn't very good at all. That school is Touro University in Nevada (TUNCOM) There are several different Touro schools and that is the worst one by far. The next closest one on here isn't far behind at 26.9% non-match, and that one is William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Mississippi. (5:15) Matching vs. Unmatched Percentage matched vs. Percentage Unmatched. The way that the AOA lists this, is they have percentage matched, percentage non-matched, and then percentage of non-participants. When you look at percentage matched, it's only 40.9% and you might think, 'Wow that's crazy, how come nobody's matching?' But then when you combine that with non-participants, DO students that are matching outside of the DO residency matching program (as a DO student you can match through the MD matching program and you're counted as a non-participant). When you look at the percentage matched at 40.9% and the percentage non-matched at 46.1%, the result is 87%, which is obviously the leftover from the non-match of 13%. So 87% of DO students are matching. (6:35) Is every spot getting filled? Not every prelim spot is getting filled. Now here's something to think about when it comes to residency matching. When I looked at the NRMP match data, they have the total match of 96.3% of all US spots filled. So not every residency spot is getting filled, which is not good. And when you look at it, you have several different types of programs that are more than likely not getting close to getting filled, and those are prelim spots. If I look at surgery prelim- and a prelim is a PGY1 year only. It's basically saying, 'Hey come to our prelim spot, and try out for our residency.' It is basically if you didn't match anywhere else, then a prelim spot you can hopefully come into our program after you do well your prelim year. If you look at surgery prelim according to NRMP, it only filled 64.4%. There were a lot of spots available. (8:00) Know yourself, and your competition If you’re not matching, you are probably trying to match into a very competitive program that you aren't qualified to match in. What does this all mean? It means that a lot of people that aren't matching are probably trying to match into a very competitive program that they aren't qualified to match in. It's very similar to trying to get accepted to Harvard, Yale, and Wash U medical schools when you have a 3.0 GPA and a 500 on the MCAT. You're dreaming a little bit too big, but it also could be that that year that you're applying for something is a very competitive year and a lot of people are trying to match into it and you just didn't make the cut. Typically, the students that go through the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP, formerly called Scramble) get notified during the time period before the match and are notified that you did not match. You then enter this SOAP program and you find residencies that didn't fill, and a lot of them are going to be PGY1 only spots. Some of them may be internal medicine spots and you wanted to do something else besides internal medicine. However, there are these other spots, and if you want to match into one of those programs you can go do that. There's a whole separate system outside of the normal match program to allow students that didn't match to get into a program so that they can continue their post-graduate training, which is necessary if you want to be a doctor here in the US. (9:38) Know when to ask questions, and which ones to ask My personal belief? You shouldn't look at residency matching rates for choosing which schools to apply to, with one exception. Look at those huge outliers like Touro Nevada, like William Carey University, and ask yourself: Why is their match rate so low? Are they a brand new school and they're just getting ramped up Perhaps their first round of students that they let in weren't the best students? Are they just getting their curriculum under control? Are they under some sort of probation because their curriculum isn't training students well enough? Then call the school and say, 'Hey I noticed your residency match rates are pretty terrible,' and find out from them what they have to say. If it's a school that you're interested in going to because the location is perfect for you, consider it. (10:45) Past performance does not predict future performance. It's like the stock market: it doesn't matter what the stock market did yesterday, it's not going to determine what it does tomorrow. It's a good predictor, it's a good kind of rule of thumb to think about it, but things change, people change, professors change, and you - the person that is actually learning and studying and figuring this all out, is one of the biggest variables to all of this. So if you are motivated, if you are driven, if you are determined to get whatever residency spot you want, then you will probably do well. You cannot rely on the school to help you match somewhere. The school is there to help support you, but you need the drive and motivation to do it yourself. (11:32) My Bottom line When it comes to residency matching and picking schools, look at those huge outliers, but outside of that I wouldn't look at residency programs to determine where you want to go to school. Locations, curriculum and many other factors come into play. Resources Mentioned on this Episode: http://www.oldpremeds.org American Osteopathic Association Intern and Residency Registration Program https://medicalschoolhq.net/pmy-215-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-doctor-you-need-to-know-this/ Touro University Nevada Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Session 58 If you are not a traditional student entering the medical field on your terms, you may have had some hiccups along the way but now you’re ready to change course and serve others as a physician. This podcast is here to help answer your questions and help educate you on your non-traditional journey to becoming a physician. In this episode, Ryan takes a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and delivers the answer right here to you. Today’s question comes from a  student looking to figure out if he needs to do some extracurricular activities while studying for the MCAT as well. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: “I’m currently studying for the MCAT. I graduated two years ago in 2015 and after working in the emergency room as a medical scribe this past year, I realized becoming a physician was my calling. I stopped working as a scribe in August 2016 and returned back to school in September 2016, taking a few courses that I thought would help me with the MCAT. I also took the MCAT prep course which began in October and I had hopes of taking the MCAT in January. But unfortunately my scores are not where they need to be. As a result, I pushed my MCAT back to the end of March. With that being said, I was planning on taking it in January and have other things lined up between now and March, such as a part-time job and volunteer work. I am concerned about putting more things on my plate while approaching the MCAT and I am wondering what would be the best course of action. I could either continue studying for the MCAT for another two months with little else to show on my resume besides that (i.e. any extracurricular activities for six months and just studying for the MCAT). Or I could take on those extracurricular activities , such as volunteering and the part time job and try to balance it all out while studying for the MCAT. I feel like focusing on the MCAT is the best course of action and not getting bogged down with other activities but I am worried that med schools will look at this six-month time period and wonder -- ‘what else were you doing during this time period’?-- as if studying for the MCAT was not enough and I should have been doing extracurricular activities as well. Any advice would be great. Thank you!” --- Jacob Here are my insights: (4:10) You shouldn’t worry about what medical schools are going to think. If you are new to this podcast, I encourage you to go back and look at the forums at OldPreMeds.org. The first person who commented on the forum basically said the same thing; you shouldn’t worry about what medical schools are going to think. However, there is one caveat: med schools will see this break and wonder why there was this break, if you really wanted to become a physician. I would say, though, that six months is okay only if as soon as you take the MCAT, you pick it right back up so that while there is this break, you are continuing to do it. Don’t drop it completely and then apply and then have this break that ended a year from when you actually submit your applications. (5:12) Doing some extracurricular activities MAY help your MCAT score. If you can step away from the books a bit and clear your mind, you give yourself a “brain break”. It will also help during those times when you are bogged down studying for an eight hour practice test, frustrated that you didn’t achieve the score you wanted and you are ready to give up; doing those extracurriculars and being around physicians is going to shine some light on why you are going through the journey in the first place! Having some variety will be good for you and allow to break the monotony of just studying for the MCAT. You will come back refreshed, ready to learn and perform better. (6:15) If your practice test grades are not increasing, go check out Next Step Test Prep. Their job is to figure out why you’re not doing well on the test. Their tutors are not there to help you learn the content; rather, their job is to help you with the test. Kaplan, Princeton Review , etc are great for teaching you content but Next Step Test Prep tutors are there to help you overcome your brain block on doing well when it’s time to take the test. Links and Other Resources: http://www.oldpremeds.org Next Step Test Prep ** Use the promo code: MSHQ for savings on tutoring

Session 57 In this episode, Ryan takes a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and delivers the answer right here to you. Today's scenario is a perfect example of why grades can't get you an acceptance to medical school. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is 32 years old dropped out of high school when he was 18; developed weird health issues in his 20's that got him obsessed with biochemistry and medicine; went back to school at 26 and graduated from a community college with 4.0 GPA.; about to graduate from the University of Michigan with BS in Biochemistry with 3.97 GPA. The poster originally wanted to get a PhD in Biochemistry but decided to go for an MD. He spent the summer studying for the MCAT and took it on August 20 and got a 515. His biggest issue is his extracurricular with not a lot of volunteer experience but did quite a bit for a nonprofit donating free pet food to animal rescue groups, zero research experience, and very few shadowing hours. He has not been rejected from all of the schools he applied to but in the event he gets rejected, what should be done? Poster is afraid he'll be too old to make medical school financially worth it. Here are the insights from Ryan: From PhD to MD: Why? You have to figure out a story about why the shift from wanting to be a PhD to an MD. Taking the MCAT on August 20: This is a big red flag because this means you didn't get your score back until late September. 515 is a great score but not getting your MCAT in until late September would mean your application was not complete until that time. By that point, several schools have already looked at all the applications and saving a few spots for the last few that come in which are stellar applications. Extracurriculars: One of the major reasons students are rejected is the lack of clinical experience. When you combine this lack of clinical experience with not telling your story well enough about why you just randomly decided to switch to an MD, schools may be concerned about your desires and motives to be a physician. Major takeaway from this episode: You need to do a better job at telling your story. You need to get more clinical experience and be around sick patients. They need to truly understand why you switched from wanting to get a PhD to an MD. Tell that story. Get that experience. Then reapply next year. Your MCAT score will still be good and you won't be as old. Links and Other Resources: The Premed Years Podcast Session 171: Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve The Premed Years Podcast Session 217 www.medicalschoolhq.net

Session 56 In this episode, Ryan breaks from what he usually does here on the podcast where he pulls up a questions directly from OldPreMeds.org forum as he talks about this HUGE announcement this past week from the AACOM that affects nontraditional students more than traditional students. Osteopathic medical schools are more favorable to non-traditional students, You may have struggled in the past, did poorly in undergrad or at a community college, gave up on your dream, only to find that passion again and want to try to fulfill that dream and become a physician. You've probably heard that as a nontrad applicant with poor grades in the past, applying to DO schools would be beneficial to you. Historically, that has been the case. NO MORE GRADE REPLACEMENT AACOMAS Application had a grade replacement policy for repeat coursework. However. effective May 1, 2017 (applying in 2017 to start school in 2018), AACOMAS will no longer replace your old grade with your new grade. As per AACOM.org: "Effective May 1, 2017, AACOMAS will include all course attempts in the GPA calculation. This change applies to students matriculating into the 2018-2019 academic year. In the event of multiple attempts of the same course, AACOMAS will no longer drop initial course attempts from the GPA calculation." Read full notice on AACOM.org Here are the insights from Ryan: This will affect a lot of you who are currently in school retaking classes because you were going to rely on this grade replacement policy. The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) did you wrong. If they were planning this policy change, they should have given you a transition period so students currently in school and in the process of repeating classes would have 2-3 years to apply to use the grade replacement policy before it changed. If you applied in 2016 to start in 2017 but you didn't get into medical school, when you reapply this year, your GPA will change according to the new policy assuming you had repeated coursework. The Silver Lining Osteopathic medical schools may continue recalculating weighing your GPA per established admissions practices. Problem: This puts the work onto each of the medical schools which have a lot of work to do to begin with. They usually have filters in place where they can filter out based on a GPA cutoff or MCAT cutoff. If you're a student where your GPA is going to drop from, say 3.6 to 2.6, guaranteed, your 2.6 is going to be filtered out. Solution: Advocate for yourself and speak out to the medical school and ask them to consider taking a look into your application. Major takeaway from this episode: If this is affecting you, keep your head up. Just keep doing well. Advocate for yourself. If this is truly what you want to do, you'll make it work. Links and Other Resources: Read the actual notice from AACOM. Check out the Specialty Stories podcast on www.medicalschoolhq.net

Session 5 In this week's episode, Ryan talks with an orthopedic hand surgeon in a hybrid setup. He's in a community-based hospital and program but he has residents he interacts with who rotate through the hospital. He has been practicing for almost two years. Here are the highlights of the conversation with Ragu: When he knew he wanted to be an orthopedic hand surgeon: Deciding he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon towards the end of 2nd year medical school He chose hand surgery towards the middle of his orthopedic residency after doing some rotations and liking the intricate nature of the hand What led him to orthopedics vs. general surgery: Enjoying the aspect that you focus on the extremities It's a specialty with multiple subspecialties - (ex. sports, joint replacements, shoulder, knee, hand, children) so it gave him a lot of options General surgery is like a primary care field with no cross-correlation for orthopedics. Other specialties he was considering: Anesthesia Radiology EENT Traits that lead to being a good orthopedic surgeon: Hardwork Dedication Desire to work with your hands and doing procedures Good motor coordination A typical day for an orthopedic: 3 days of office 1 1/2 days of surgery 1/2 administrative work or extra surgery Office day: 8am - 4pm seeing 20 patients 20 minutes per patient + 5 minutes to do charting Consultations on the floor in between Answering calls from patients One weekend per month of call Surgery day: 7:30 am to 3-4pm doing 3-6 surgeries a day (depending on the type and length of surgery) 75-80% of his surgeries are hand/upper extremity surgeries (hand, wrist, forearm, elbow) *Majority of hand surgeons do only hand surgery (90-95%) *The average orthopedic surgeon takes 5-6 days of call a month (1 weekday a week and 1 weekend for the month) Types of patients and cases an orthopedic sees: Carpal tunnel syndrome Tendonitis Hand fractures/injuries Traumatic injuries (lacerations on the hand) Percentage of patients he sees in the office that he ends up taking in the operating room: 1-2 out of 20 people that he sees Does he have work-life balance? He is married and travel once every 3-4 months for a vacation. He has a number of hobbies outside of work like basketball and golf. Quality time with his wife, friends, and family You have a good chance of having a say on who you want to set up your life because you get to pick and choose what is important to you. What makes a competitive applicant for orthopedics: Showing interest in orthopedics (talking to the orthopedic department in your school and talking to some people) and getting involved such as research or lectures Good board scores Good letters of recommendation Good scores on clinical rotations especially those involving surgical stuff (surgery, OB, medicine) Bias in the orthopedic field towards DO applicants: In the past, DO applicants were not getting proper consideration. But in the recent years, DOs are starting to get more recognition as being just as competent as MD applicants. Generally, there is a slight bias against DO applicants applying to MD orthopedic programs. Residency as an orthopedic surgeon: Tough but every year gets better He enjoyed it a lot. Duration: 1 year general surgery intern year (half doing orthopedics and half doing general surgery with a potential for a month of elective such as radiology) 4 years of orthopedic-only residency What the orthopedic fellowship looks like: 1 year (Others do second year on a different fellowship) Orthopedic fellowships are cyclically competitive (every 4-5 years, there's a new, popular fellowship that everybody wants to get into) Opportunities for females to enter orthopedics: There are many females in orthopedics. Women can be just as good as men in orthopedic surgery and can do any subspecialty they want. It's just a matter of knowledge and training. More and more women are now going into orthopedics and there are now more and more women in orthopedics doing fellowships. What the orthopedic board exams look like: Similar to USMLE only that it's focused on orthopedics Multiple choice questions - Parts I and II Part I - Test for knowledge of the basic science and orthopedic surgery Part II - Oral exam How the oral exam works: Once you're out in practice, you submit 6 months worth of your surgical cases. They will review them and pick a number of cases then you discuss it with senior orthopedic surgeons. They will ask you numerous questions and they will judge you based on your clinical decisions. Pass rates for the board exams: Part I - US medical graduate from a US orthopedic residency: low 90% range Part II - low 90% range What he wished he knew before starting his orthopedic residency: Knowing that time passes by quicker than you think. Opportunities don't come about again once you finish your training. The whole goal of residency is to see and learn as much as you can. You have to go in prepared for those first 2-3 years of residency to miss important life events and not feel bad about it. After that time, things will be easier. What he wished primary care physicians knew about orthopedics: Orthopedics are capable physicians and they do and understand some medicine. Hopefully, more of them would give them some credibility in regards to that. If primary care physicians would take a little bit of initiative to learn the musculoskeletal exam or the basics of it, they can actually examine their patients and be able to direct them to an orthopedic surgeon appropriately instead of just sending them without even having seen the patient. Other specialties orthopedics work the closest with: Emergency room physician or PA Internal medicine team Rheumatology and Neurology Other special opportunities outside of medicine: Research and development of orthopedic implants and products (such as bone cements) What he likes the most about being an orthopedic surgeon: Seeing and interacting with patients and giving a solution to a problem that's been plaguing them for months or years What he likes the least being an orthopedic surgeon: Being on call (ex. getting a phone call at 2 am) The few patients that are beyond his ability to help Would he still have chosen orthopedic hand surgery if he had to do it all again? Yes, because he likes orthopedics and hand orthopedics. The future of orthopedic surgery: Figuring out ways to heal the body and improve things without surgical intervention like lasers or nanobots to make the human body better. The immediate future of orthopedic surgery: They have improved their ability to fix people's broken bones by making smaller incisions and using sturdier implants. They have gotten better with the biologics of bone so they are able to stimulate the bone properly so it heals faster and stronger. They have figured out how to treat tendonitis without traumatizing them with surgery but by way of stem cells or platelet-rich plasma, etc The use of robotics Some pieces of advice for students interested in orthopedic surgery: Don't be daunted by the competitiveness of orthopedics. It's not as bad as people make it out to be to get in. Just decide what you want to do and go for it. Don't decide on orthopedic surgery for the money, fame, or popularity. Look inside yourself and decide on what's going to make you happy. Pick a specialty you can be happy doing 15-20 years down the line. That's what's going to keep you going to work everyday And that's what's going to keep you happy with your work and home life and give you the most success. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com www.OldPreMeds.org

Session 55 In this episode, Ryan talks about whether or not your chances of getting into medical school will get slimmer if you’re retaking the MCAT for the third time and whether taking a Master’s in a tech science-related course affect your application. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where he pulls a question and delivers the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is 25 years old and working in the industry for the last 2.5 years. He/she is currently studying for a Master's in software engineering and graduating in Spring '18. Despite that, he/she is considering applying for medical school after listening the OldPreMeds podcast. While taking undergrad in electrical engineering, he/she did premed simultaneously for Texas Medical Schools with a 3.6 GPA. Poster applied in 2015 but screened away; taken MCAT twice (1st-27 and 2nd-29). Poster is looking to apply in 2018 and planning to take Kaplan to prep for the MCAT in 2017. Poster is also looking at volunteering and shadowing experiences next year. Poster is close at finishing Master's in software engineering where the company pays for it. Since this is the third time of taking the MCAT, are the chances of getting in slimmer? Is everything riding on the next MCAT score? Here are the insights from Ryan: Your chances of getting to medical school (in terms of the admissions side) have nothing to do with your MCAT score or how many times you take your MCAT score. However, there are some restrictions in how many times you can take the MCAT. 3x in a single testing year 4x during two consecutive periods 7x in a lifetime. For somebody taking it 4-7 times, there's a reason there's a need to take it so many times. How did you prepare for the MCAT the first two times? And why are you doing Kaplan this time? About test prep courses Things being third time taking the test, consider taking Next Step Test Prep because they offer one-on-one tutoring although they also have an online course now. Is everything riding on your next MCAT score? Everything is not riding on your next MCAT score but you should do well on it. Find out why you're not doing well. There should be a reason why and hopefully, Next Step can figure that out for you. Should you be taking any courses or a postbac? No, you have a good GPA. You took the required classes in school. The only question is - do you think you're prepared enough for the MCAT with having your premed classes a number of years ago? Or can you self-study and re-learn the foundational content for the MCAT so you can use that information. The MCAT is not a content-heavy test but it focuses more on critical thinking and analysis. Does completing a Master's in software engineering help or hurt your chances? Software engineering is tech science-related so it doesn't help you or it doesn't necessarily hurt you. It can only hurt you if it takes you concentration away as well as your time for doing other things like shadowing and getting in extracurricular activities and studying for the MCAT. Can you still submit your application in 2017? You have 6 months to apply at the very start of June 2017. Theoretically, you could take the MCAT in June but it's still doable to submit your applications early, get you secondaries back and by the time you submitted those, your MCAT score is back. This will not delay your application but the problem is that you won't know your score when you submit your application. Look at taking the MCAT in June, working with a test prep company up until then and take the practice tests. If you're not doing well in the practice test, then don't apply until next year so you can figure out how to improve. Another key point: Make sure your shadowing and clinical experiences are up-to-date. Medical school want to see that you continue to be involved in medicine throughout this whole time. Major takeaway from this episode: Yes, you have a good shot at getting in but you just need to work on your MCAT score and figure out why you're not doing well on it. Links and Other Resources: Next Step Test Prep - Use the code MSHQ and save some money www.mededmedia.com OldPreMeds.org Leave us a rating and review at www.oldpremeds.org/itunes www.teepublic.com and search for “premed”

Session 54 In this episode, Ryan talks about how you can improve your medical school application where he touches on some points such as postbac courses, clinical experience, and international clinical volunteering. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where you can ask questions, get answers, and participate with other students. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster has the following credentials: 3.0 undergrad GPA 3.8 Master's GPA in Health Administration 28 on old MCAT (now studying for a year and hopes to get a 510+ on the new one 3+ years of research experience as a lab technician for a medical school but they have a 3.25 undergrad GPA cutoff 2 shadowing experiences Clinical volunteering with 3-week international trip and 25 hours in emergency department This student is taking some postbac courses this upcoming semester including advanced biochem and advanced genetics and maybe an O chem retake. How can you best utilize my time to improve my application when you work full time and you're planning to apply this upcoming cycle entering 2018 class? Here are the insights from Ryan: Master's degrees don't really have a huge effect on your application especially Health Administration GPA because it's not a "hard sciences." More postbac classes, better undergrad GPA Look into taking more postbac classes to help boost your undergrad GPA. Remember, postbac classes are undergrad GPA courses so they would affect your undergrad GPA. These would be listed separately in the application but they will be combined into your compete undergrad GPA. Shadowing experiences and clinical volunteering Two shadowing experiences wouldn't be a lot unless they are long term. You need a good 25-30 hours of shadowing or a little bit more as a minimum. International trip is okay although a lot of medical schools don't really like international clinical volunteering. It's actually debatable whether it helps your application or not because it's seen as unnecessary. More than your stats Your application is much more than just your stats since it includes everything about you.. Your personal statement is huge as well as your extracurriculars and how you described them. Major takeaway from this episode: Get enough clinical experience. Get a great MCAT score. Think about some more classes to bump up your undergrad GPA. Links and Other Resources: The Premed Years Session 171: Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve OldPreMeds.org

Whether you are just starting out on your journey, or ready to apply this coming year, there are things that you should keep in mind for the new year. Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post The Premed Years podcast session 11: Interview with a 56-Year Old Medical Student ryan@medicalschoolhq.net www.medicalschoolhq.net/premedcalendar www.OldPreMeds.org

Session 53 In this episode, Ryan talks about a question from a former Air Force medic who is now working towards applying to medical school. Would it suffice if the time since your last clinical experience was almost 2 years ago? Or should you get more? Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Today's poster is a former Air Force medic and worked as a public health technician while in the Air Force. He was into it for a total of 8 years and is now in college working towards becoming a doctor. His current main focus is earning great GPA and studying for the MCAT. Because he has spent 8 years working in a hospital (close to doctors and working one-on-one on multiple occasions), can this experience be used as a shadowing experience? (He's applying to medical school in 2018 and the last time he would have worked with a doctor would be November 2016) Should more shadowing be done? Here are the insights from Ryan: Medical schools want to see that you have sustained commitment to medicine as a whole. If your last exposure was close to 2 years since, it's going to look bad on your application and they'll wonder why you didn't continue to expose yourself to medicine. Not surrounding yourself with medicine for two years is questionable. Being a military medic or being around military medicine is completely different than it is for civilian medicine in terms of the environment and how things are paid for and done. You would be better served by getting more clinical experience and shadowing more physicians. If you have two years until you're applying, start shadowing once every other week for an hour or two. You don't have to do a ton of stuff. Being a former Air Force medic, you're close to getting your EMT certificate or license to be able to go and get more clinical experience as a civilian. Major takeaway from this episode: All your experience plays a huge role in your application but 2 years is too long ago to not continue to do something now. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com

Session 50 In this episode, Ryan basically talks about picking medical schools to apply to and whether you should apply to out-of-state public schools. This is another question pulled out from the forums over at the OldPreMeds.org which you should check out, if you haven't yet, so you too can start joining the discussions or post any questions that you have related to your medical school replication. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is talking about applying in the upcoming cycle and curious about how to go contacting admissions at a state school which generally offers an extremely low number of interviews to out-of-state (OOS) applicants. Poster lived in this state for less than a year in the last five years with immediate family in the vicinity of the school. Poster is drawn by the school's commitment to service in the community and its leadership in the field of medicine and its proximity to family. Who do you contact at the medical school with the application season coming up? And what should you say considering a complicated residential history? Here are the insights from Ryan: Where do you want to go to school? State schools in other states Dig into the state schools that you're looking at in other states because there is a high likelihood that they give extreme preference to in-state applicants. State medical schools are funded by the state and are there to train students who hopefully stay and work in that state. Private schools Majority of private schools don't give any preferential treatment to in-state applicants. What are your chances? To not apply to a public out-of-state school because your premed advisor told you not to is silly. There is always a chance. But you should have a good reason why you want to go to that public OOS school. What are your ties to the state? Having family in that area is the perfect reason why you want to go to that school so you can have that support structure. Talk more about the living in the area and staying there and the more likely you're getting an interview. It boils down to having ties to the state so you can sell yourself to the admissions committee. How do you reach out to the school? There is really no need to reach out to the school. Instead, just put together a well-thought out personal statement and talk about your reasons for applying there. They're going to ask about it on your secondaries so be prepared as well. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com The Premed Years Podcast www.medicalschoolhq.net

Session 49 In this week's episode, Ryan gives his take on whether you should do a masters program prior to taking a postbac program and he also sheds some light to the confusion around undergrad, postbac, and graduate GPAs. If you haven’t yet, register at OldPreMeds.org so you can post your first question right here on the podcast. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is a true nontraditional student who didn't want to go to medicine until after graduating college. They decided to pursue a medical career after graduating from a public university with very good standing but didn't do so well with their freshmen and junior year where and ended up graduating with a 2.8 GPA with English, Sociology, Psychology, and Calc1 prereq in 2015. Since then, they've been working full time and part time. Now she has decided to pursue medicine, got her CPR card, and looking into applying to postbac programs but not sure whether they have the academic potential to apply to postbac programs. Some have said that instead of going straight to a postbac premed program, they should instead get their master's degree and along with good postbac GPA overall, they should then apply to a postbac premed program, then medical school. Do you need to do a Masters to get into a postbac program? Here are the insights from Ryan: On your applications, your GPA is broken down in a couple different ways: Undergrad GPA Postbac GPA - while listed separately, is counted as an undergrad GPA Graduate GPA If you get a Master’s GPA, that's only affecting your graduate GPA, and not your postbac GPA or your undergrad GPA. A postbac doesn't necessarily have to be a postbac-specific program, but any undergrad classes that you were taking after you get your degree. Ryan recommends: Unless you really want a masters in whatever you're planning on studying, a masters degree for the sake of boosting your GPA for medical schools or postbac programs is a waste of time. This poster's GPA might not be competitive enough for formal postbac programs so he/she will have to look around and use the AAMC postbac database and look for the Career Changer Postbac Programs and reach out to them. Here are your possible options: You can take the prereqs as a non degree-seeking undergrad student (so this would be a DIY postbac and this would be your postbac GPA) at a four-year university The only differences between a formal postbac and a do-it-yourself postbac are the level of support and the cost. Formal postbacs are more expensive because they are like mini-universities within a university which have separate advising setup specifically for postbac programs (Also included are shadowing experiences, clinical experiences. MCAT prep, etc.) However, there is no difference between getting 4.0 in a formal postbac and getting a 4.0 in a DIY postbac program as a non degree seeking student on your applications. Either of both will be your postbac GPA which will be factored into your undergrad GPA. Major takeaway from this episode: Do well as a non degree seeking student. Do well in a formal postbac. But the master's degree is a waste of time. Links and Other Resources: AAMC postbac database - Career Changer Postbac Programs www.oldpremeds.org

Session 48 In today's episode, Ryan sheds light on a question related to getting into a US-based medical school when you previously went to a Caribbean school, failed the first semester, and then dropped out. What are the chances? Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Sign up for an account to join the collaborative community of students. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster applied to medical school after completing an MPH and didn't get into any US medical school. He then decided to forego reapplication and went to a Caribbean medical school; didn't pass the first semester and had to repeat the entire first semester but thinking through, found that they're not in a conducive environment for studying plus residency chances in the US wouldn't be great. So poster bailed and decided to work harder, get smarter, and reapply in the US. Is it worth taking a chance and reapply to medical schools? What else can be done and how can you address the fact that you started medical school and then dropped out? Here are the insights from Ryan and Rich: How MPH is viewed by medical schools: MPH isn't that strong of a masters degree to hold a lot of water for medical schools Why students go to Caribbean medical schools and then eventually decide to drop out: Offshore schools are attractive to students being publicly traded companies. Offshore medical schools have reasonably decent and rigorous medical education programs that people are not prepared for that. Some questions to consider: Is it worth the expense of going through a Special Master's Program (SMP) at this point? Can you take higher level biomedical courses (high level undergraduate or beginning graduate courses) not for the degree but just to show them you can do well? How to discuss your case of dropping out: Getting allured in your desire to be a doctor and not thinking, you rushed in. Then you realized for many reasons that it was not going to be an environment that you were going to do well in and look well for the future. In short, you just have to lay it all out there. Don't try to hide something you can't hide or even try to minimize it. Should you discuss this in your personal statement? Make your medical school application a coherent, concise, and compelling narrative showing your motivation, commitment, and achievement to become a doctor. This is a glaring red flag that you HAVE to discuss in a paragraph in your personal statement on the primary. What are your chances? Your chances are low but that doesn't mean you don't stand any chance. You can't change your past but you have to go with the best you can. So many schools are now giving completely unscreened secondaries so you have more of a chance to develop it and discuss it in words. Advocate for yourself. Build those relationships with people that can open some doors for you. Links and Other Resources: Check out The Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net.

Session 47 In this episode, Ryan and Rick tackle a question about shadowing experiences and whether it matters that you're shadowing a DO (osteopathic) when interested in going to an MD (allopathic) school. Ryan and Rich also take a step further and talk about how most DO schools stress the importance of shadowing a DO when applying to a DO school. Once again, Ryan and Rich digged into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster, Matt, said that every DO school requires that you shadow a DO. How do allopathic schools view shadowing a DO versus an MD? Matt is applying to both schools. Here are the insights from Ryan: and Rich: What  medical schools look for is "healthcare experience" which could be in multiple ways: Shadowing Volunteering in clinical or hospital setting or employment Community/social service is close to that Shadowing MD vs. DO: An MD or DO is your degree from school. Most doctors look at your residency and what you did a residency in. That said, having an MD or DO is essentially meaningless in the practice of medicine. If you're applying to MD school and shadowing a family practice but have a DO, have him write a letter of recommendation as a practice doc. DO is in the title but Rich doesn't think medical schools really care or think of it as less worthy than it would with MD. Some points to consider: Shadowing is just observing. In itself, it's not as valuable to medical school as some of the healthcare experiences can be. Letters from doctors you shadowed are not really important as you don't usually have an in-depth relationship. Most schools are not that impressed by a shadowing letter as being all that valuable. The College Information Book for most schools would say that a letter of recommendation from a DO is strongly recommended. Ryan recommends to take this as a requirement if they say so. DO schools care that you understand the DO philosophy and have shadowed a DO. Major takeaway from this episode: Go find somebody to shadow that is going to interest you. Spend quality time with him/her and get a good letter of recommendation after spending some quality time. The letters after their name don't matter. Doctors are doctors. The only difference is that when you're applying to DO school, it's recommended that you shadow a DO so you can observe their OM (Osteopathic Manipulative) medicine or therapy. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com College Information Book

Session 46 This week's question is coming from a 36-year old, single mother of three who is looking to get into medical school. Listen in as Ryan and Rich share their insights into how you can actually evaluate postbac programs. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is looking at UCLA postbac program, part of the UCLA Extension School; she said it's the only program that doesn't require a GPA minimum but she's concerned if this is going to hurt her appearance at medical schools because of this. How should a nontraditional student evaluate postbac progams? Here are the insights from Ryan: Evaluate the logistics of your life. A young single student has different concerns than a mom of three. Go to the best school if you can. But if you don't have time logistics to study, you're not going to be successful. So evaluate what you need. The GPA point of interest is not a valid concern. Medical school are not going to worry what GPA you had going into a postbac but they're going to worry about your GPA coming out of the postbac. Some things you need to consider: Is it going to be in the morning or the evening? Is it a full time system or part time? What is the cost? Do you need an advisor? Do you need a prep course for MCAT? Are there any links for this postbac? Does it have any connections with medical school? Does it have any EC coordination? Place for training or research Success rate (Be careful of this.) Find out what their stats and requirements are. (Not having a committee or composite letter from them is a big red flag.) You can do an informal postbac. This means not going through a formal postbac program but rather, you take the courses that you need to improve especially if you have low GPA.At this point, advising for this particular case is very important. There is no MSAR for post bac. There is no standardization. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com In celebration of The Premed Years podcast, Ryan is holding a contest where you can get a chance to win some one-on-one coaching with Ryan. Simply head over to www.medicalschoolhq.net/contest to join.

Session 45 In today's episode, Ryan is joined once again by Rich as they take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums. Listen is as they try to outline possible routes to take to get into medical school when your GPA is too low to get into a postbac program. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is a recent BS graduate from a school in California and medical school has always been in their eyes but graduating with a 2.86 GPA and feeling they have no chance; they took too many units out f worry that they wouldn't be able to graduate in four years; bad grades in Gen Chem and O Chem, getting D's and repeating those and still didn't do well (B in Gen Chem and C in O Chem). Their premed advisor at their school told them to give up their med school dreams. They're still volunteering and still want to go to medical school; haven't taken the MCAT yet and looking at taking a postbac but GPA qualifications are too high for what their GPA is. What is a student supposed to do when you have a low GPA and you're looking for a postbac when they have minimum requirements for GPA? Here are the insights from Ryan and Rich: Many students see a GPA number and don't see anything past that. Rich recommends either of these two paths: Start within a formal postbac. Take classes as a non matriculating student at whatever school you can get to in order to get better coursework and prove your GPA. The prerequisites are not the same as a Special Masters Program (SMP) You may have to go through informal postbac, a formal postbac, and then SMP to get into an MD school - this is long and expensive path Go to a DO school. The repeats can be done again and they will only count the last retake in your GPA for school. The schools will know you repeated it but the GPA they will consider for entrance will be that. Assuming you want to stay in California, they have a limited space for postbac and limited space for informal postbac. California is probably the most competitive state for medical school. DO school may just be a better path in terms of time, chances, and money. Going to a Caribbean school: This should be your very, very last resort. The quality of education is not the point but it's their way of taking students and the chances for residency in the US Do not think about the Caribbean until you've gone through two complete cycles, both MD and DO, with a break in between for repair and enhancement. One of the most common mistakes is students reapplying too soon. Major takeaway from this episode: Go through an informal postbac, formal postbac. Don't take the MCAT until you've got your GPA up and ready. If you don't get in, try a Special Masters Program. Or just take the DO route directly. Consider other medical mid-level professions such as NP and PA as you would still be part of the team. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com

Session 44 In this episode, Ryan answers a commonly asked question among nontraditional students which is about how you can fit in your life experiences into a personal statement. How do you actually fit your life into 4500 or 5300 characters? We take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forum where they will be answered here on the podcast. If you have questions, whether you’re a nontraditional or traditional student, go to OldPreMeds.org and register for an account. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is asking how to fit everything into his personal statement considering that he has done a lot of traveling and did online courses because his parents threatened to take away his funds for school if he didn't study. Now, he has been working hard in the last few months to gain volunteer hours, research work, shadowing experience, focusing on GPA, studying for the MCAT. However, he is having a hard time visualizing how all the travel experience and unique approach to his 20s will look in a personal statement versus being lazy or avoiding work life. Here are the insights from Ryan: "How do you fit in your life experiences into a personal statement?" Such is a wrong question for you to ask. Your life experiences are a huge part of who you are in your application. However, your personal statement is your story about why you're pursuing medicine. At the end of your personal statement, the admissions committee needs to be able to understand why you want to be a doctor. So it's not about your travel experiences, not about how all this travel has led to you being culturally diverse or how it's helped you develop time management skills, etc. Therefore, the question should be: "Why do you want to be a doctor and how do you write about that?" Have these travel experiences deepened your resolve to be a physician? If yes, then talk about a little bit of that since you need to support "why you want to be a doctor" with these experiences you've had along the way. Major takeaway from this episode: You don't need to talk about your travel and how it's taught you all these skills in your personal statement. This does not belong there. What your personal statement should contain rather is why you essentially want to become a doctor. If you need help with your personal statement, Ryan offers editing services. Simply go to www.medicalschoolhq.net/personal-statement-editing Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com

Session 43 In this episode, Ryan tackles the issue of a student who is struggling with very low undergrad and postbac GPA scores and a low 2015 MCAT score. Find out what options you could possibly take when facing this kind of situation. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is in need for help and advice for applying to medical school; graduated in 2002 with a very low GPA  (2.01) and have take classes with postbac GPA of 2.7 and Science GPA at 3.3. Overall GPA at 2.37. Because of low undergrad GPA, poster is unable to get premed help from the school where they've taken current postbac courses. Overall Science GPA of 2.7 is because of classes taken while doing research which are graduate level courses taken in order to be able to work in a lab. Not prepared for the classes but needed the job to pay rent and help his soon-to-be wife at that time to pay for physical therapy school. Have worked in basic research labs for 3 years, published 2 papers, and post tier presentations at international conferences. Work experience: clinical research (4 years) and lab assistant at a medical school (anatomy lab and orthopedic surgical training center); MCAT 2015 score of 26 and 3; currently working on physical therapy research and teaching; looking for premed advising help. Here are the insights from Ryan: Figure out why you're not doing well in school. No excuses. What is your struggle? A Science GPA of 2.7 is not going to cut it. An overall GPA of 3.7 is not going to gut it. An MCAT score of 26 is not going to cut it. And it's getting old since most schools are going to stop accepting the old MCAT score. You probably have to take it again. Do some soul searching and figure out where the issue lies. You need to improve your grades if you want to get into medical school. There is no point in doing more postbac classes unless you can do really well and only apply to DO schools to take advantage of grade replacement for GPA calculations. Another possible option is a Special Masters Program (SMP), basically a postbac masters level program that goes into the different category in your application under graduate school courses whereas your postbac classes are still lumped in with your undergrad classes and undergrad GPA. Try to see if there is any Special Masters Program near you and see if they have linkage to medical schools, where if you do well in the SMP, you will have a guaranteed spot in the medical school it's associated with. Your last option is the Caribbean school. Reach out to them and see if your GPA is good enough for them. These schools are for profit institutions and they usually take anybody and everybody. But they might not even accept your low GPA. Major takeaway from this episode: You have a lot of work to do. Your research and clinical experiences are great but they're not going to overcome your GPA or MCAT score. So figure out how to improve those or look at doing something else. Links and Other Resources: OldPreMeds.org

Ryan answers questions that have come in through our Facebook group, and email. We cover a lot of different topics, so there will be something for you. Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post www.mededmedia.com OldPreMeds.org AMCAS AACOMAS ACGME AOA

Session 42 Ryan takes another question over at the OldPreMeds.org forum and delivers the answer right here on to you. If you haven't already, sign up a at the OldPreMeds.org and feel free to drop in any questions or issues you might have or join a collaborative community of nontraditioonal premedical and medical students. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is a 50-year old addiction specialist, with a great high school GPA, good undergrad GPA with a good trend in last years as an undergrad. She's interested in going to DO schools because of the "holistic" philosophy. She has extensive medical experience working as CNA and volunteering in the Emergency Room at a Children's Hospital. She realized she didn't want to go down the nursing path and enjoyed working with addicts and alcoholics and has been doing this now. Her questions are as follows: Is medicine as option for me at this point in my life or should I just quit while I'm ahead and go for the clinical psych degree? Postbac courses vs. community college courses vs. university courses? (Their alma mater doesn't allow students to take classes as non-degree seeking students add you need to declare a second bachelor's) Can you combine community college courses and university courses? Will it be necessary to update the medical experiences? Here are the insights from Ryan: If you want to be a physician no matter what your age, move forward and try to be a physician. Otherwise, when you take the psych degree and only to realize that you really should have gone for your medical degree, imagine spending money and spending five years when you did that only because maybe you were too old to get your medical degree Don't look at this from an age standpoint. If you're thinking you're too old to do it, you're wrong. If you think you don't have the experiences to do it, you're wrong. (You have to get them of course but just because you don't have them yet doesn't mean you're not moving forward) Therefore, the option is always YES to apply to medical school. Postbac programs: If you're dedicated enough to do everything on your own and do all the necessary stuff (study for MCAT, volunteering, clinical experience), then you don't need a formal postbac program. Postbac program pro: They will help you with everything along the way to ensure you're prepared to apply to medical school. Postbac program con: They are usually expensive; oftentimes, worth it if you need that structure, but expensive. Community college courses vs. university courses The gold standard for this are the four-year universities But you can still take community college courses if that's what you need to do based on : Budget Schedule Location So which is better? There is no right or wrong answer because everyone's situation is different. Combination of community college courses and university courses Yes, you can mix and match courses. Caveat: If you're taking community college courses because you can't handle the university courses, then that can be a red flag. So be ready to answer questions like why you took such course at a community college, whether thinking it's going to be easier or just to get the A. Ryan's best advice: Pick one or the other instead of switching back and forth or combining them. Updating medical experience If you've done it so long ago, reintroduce yourself to some experiences; although working as an addiction specialist working with patients is good patient care and valuable. But it doesn't hurt to go and get a more updated experience like shadowing one-on-one with a physician just to understand what life is like as a physician. Links and Other Resources: The PreMed Years Podcast Session 74: Listen to Ryan's interview with Carrie and her experience applying to medical school coming from a community college www.mededmedia.com

Session 41 In this episode, Ryan tackles a question about personal statement specifically about whether or not you should mention red flags in your personal statement. Is it safe to mention that you’ve been partying too much? Listen in to know more about Ryan’s take on this. Each week, Ryan pulls out a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forum and answers it here on the podcast. If you haven’t yet, join the positive and collaborative community of nontraditional premed and medical students by signing up at the OldPreMeds.org. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is currently writing his personal statement and has seen from different sources that red flags should be brought up in the application. His first two years were not good years academically and wanted to talk about it. If he did bring it up, should he say that he was getting lost partying too much over those first two years or should he give a vague reasoning? Here are the insights from Ryan: Should red flags be mentioned in your personal statement? Yes and no. Two important analogy questions to consider: What was it that planted the seed in your head to become a physician? What experiences watered that seed? Do you mention too much partying in a personal statement? No. Partying too much can be too much of a negative and plays too much into your personality of not caring too much and picking one thing over the other. What can you mention in a personal statement? Here's an example: Even though you got off to a slow start academically, you have course corrected and showed your strength as a student in the last two years and during your postbac. Write it down in one or two sentences. Just lay a little hint that something happened and then move on. Once you're there for the interview then you can explain things in more depth. Major takeaway from this episode: The goal of your personal statement is to lay down why you want to be a physician, what experiences have you had that have strengthened that desire. Do not dive too much into red flags as they're a waste of space and the admissions committee would not want to hear about those at this point. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com The Premed Years Podcast Listen to The Premed Years Podcast Session 161: 5 Biggest Medical School Personal Statement Mistakes Podcast Addict app on Android Stitcher app on Windows

200 Episodes and almost 1,000,000 downloads. You've been there for us, and I hope that we've been there for you on your journey to medical school. Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post Send Ryan an email at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net www.MedEdMedia.com www.OldPreMeds.org www.medicalschoolhq.net/group Next Step Test Prep OldPreMeds Podcast The Premed Playbook The MCAT Podcast modern version of the Hippocratic Oath

Session 40 In today's episode, Ryan answers a question about being a single parent in medical school. Questions are pulled out from the forum over at OldPreMeds.org. Feel free to leave your question over there or engage with an awesome community of collaborative and positive premed and medical students. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is a single dad who works two jobs and in school full-time. He has shared 50-50 custody of his son and knows med school is a full time job. If he had full custody of his son, how flexible are medical schools with this kind of situation? Are there any resources for this kind of situation or personal stories related to this? Here are the insights from Ryan: A  lot of nontraditional students have significant others in their life. Medical school is not impossible for single parents but here are some things that you need to consider: Medical school is a full time job (even more than that once you start your clinical years). Hence, you are going to rely on other people for the care of your child. Resources from medical schools: Most medical schools do not have resources for single parents. Their job is to educate students to become physicians and not a daycare for children of their students. (Although there are may be a few schools that may also have child care services for their students.) Taking loans: If you are the breadwinner for the family and you go to medical school, your ability to take loans from the federal government to pay for medical school is capped at what the budget is set by that school. The budget doesn't usually include any sort of extra food or clothing for family members, much less for child care. If you have custody of your child and have to pay for child care, then that money has to come from somewhere and not built into your loans. Either some of your family members take care of the child or pay for the child care services or figure something else out. Private loans are not the best option for you to pay for it. Major takeaway from this episode: The best situation is to have family members nearby to help shoulder the burden. If this is what you want to do, then you will definitely figure out a way to do it. Links and Other Resources: www.MedEdMedia.com OldPreMeds.org The PreMed Years Podcast The MCAT Podcast

Session 39 In this episode, Ryan tackles a concern raised by an aspiring medical student regarding how shadowing with immediate family or volunteering for a family nonprofit organization will affect your medical school application. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where he pulls a question to deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Dave is a 30-year old software engineer looking to make a switch to a career in medicine; graduating with a degree in General Studies with GPA of 3.52. He decided 18 months ago to return to school to pursue his dream of providing care and service to the community as a physician. Dave has been taking as many courses at community colleges and almost done with base prerequisite coursework. Taking the MCAT in early 2017 and applying in June 2017 for the 2018 class. Dave is struggling to find time to take all the coursework, plan his study for the MCAT, find volunteering and shadowing opportunities, and fulfill his familial obligations (with his wife and a 5-year old). How are family connections to extracurriculars viewed? He has shadowing his brother who is a practicing DO. He has also volunteered hundreds of hours for a 501-C3 nonprofit organization made up entirely of family members where they help cancer patients and survivors. Is this considered valid volunteering? Will this be an issue? Here are the insights from Ryan: Shadowing family members is not a problem. The problem is in getting a letter of recommendation from the physician you're shadowing. A strong letter of recommendation comes from the physician you're shadowing whom you've built a relationship with over a prolonged period of time. Quality, not quantity. If you can shadow one physician for a long time, build an awesome relationship with that person then they can write you a killer letter of recommendation. A letter of recommendation from your brother probably will not be looked favorably upon because you just can't trust a letter of recommendation from a family member. It's perfectly fine to shadow a brother but if you really want a strong letter of recommendation from a physician, have your brother help you find somebody else to shadow. Your connection with your brother is still very helpful because he can help you find someone else to shadow. If you're volunteering with a nonprofit, it doesn't matter who else is volunteering or working there. The key thing here is the experiences that you talked about with interacting with cancer patients and survivors are what's going to be so powerful as you write about them on your application. Your experiences will be huge here regardless of family ties. Major takeaway from this episode: Find a physician to shadow who can make a strong letter of recommendation for you while volunteering for a nonprofit organization makes a great experience for you regardless of who else is working or volunteering for that organization. Links and Other Resources: www.cramfighter.com The Premed Years Podcast Session 195 features Cram Fighter, a software to help you plan your studies for the MCAT and create a custom schedule for you.

Session 38 In this episode, we tackle personal statements for the "older among us." Is there a need to justify why you applied to medical school so late in life? Is there a need to specifically discuss this on your personal statement? Or should you save this for the interview? Is there a difference between younger nontrads and older nontrads? Our questions are pulled directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org so we can deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is currently drafting their personal statement and finding to continuously trying to answer the question, "If you want to be a physician so badly, then why haven't you done it by now?" Is this something that needs to be justified? Poster can't cover all the events that led them to apply so late in life. Should they discuss it all or save it for the interview? Are there topics older applicants should cover in the personal statement that the younger nontrads don't? Here are the insights from Ryan: How do you fit in everything in your life into 5300 or 5400 characters? Your job is not to talk about everything you've done in your life. The job of the Personal Statement is to let the reader know why it is that you want to become a physician. (Not what's taking you so long or what have you been doing in interim) Some things to consider when answering why you want to become a physician: Start with what got you interested in medicine. What was your initial draw to medicine? Talk about the most meaningful experiences you've gained throughout your path What the admissions committee members want to see from your personal statement: The impact that the experience had on you and your impact on the patients or scenario. Your experiences as adding and continually strengthening your desire to become a physician and your resolve to do it.  Your experiences as securing in your mind that you want to be a physician and is really the only course that makes sense for you Major takeaway from this episode: What took you so long doesn't really matter unless it supports your desire to become a physician. Then add it and talk about it. Think about the most impactful memories that you've had that are continually pushing you and reminding you why it is that you want to be a physician and write about those things. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com Ryan does Personal Statement editing, if you need help, visit www.medicalschoolhq.net/personal-statement-editing

Session 37 Each week, Ryan pulls out a question from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org so we can deliver the answers right on to you. This week's question comes from a student asking about research experience, specifically about whether admissions committees are biased towards applicants with research experience that they would value it over clinical observation. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Looking through the MSAR Admissions Requirements, one of the things that jumped out at them was the percentage of accepted applicants with research.lab experience. In many cases, the school reported higher numbers of accepted students with this experience than physician shadowing/observation, typically in the 85-95% range. Are admissions committees biased towards applicants with research experience that they would value it over clinical observation? Or is it that more students are reporting their lab experience from prerequisite coursework? Here are the insights from Ryan: Medical schools need to understand that you know what it's like to be a physician; hence, the importance of shadowing. You don't need a ton of shadowing to understand what it's like. However, shadowing is not the same as clinical experience. While technically you're close enough to smell patient, you're still not really "smelling" the patient. Clinical experience involves patient interaction or getting your hands dirty doing patient care. Work like being a CNA,paramedic, EMT, nurse, or PA are huge clinical experiences. Research is something that is perpetuated in the premed world as a necessity to get into medical school. Caveats: If you want to go into an MD/PhD program, research is the main driver during your premed years to get into an MD/PhD program. If you want to go into a research-heavy institution, research is going to be very important. The emergence of evidence-based medicine: The actual act of research is not necessarily important but it's important that you understand the process. You don't need to publish anything to get experience and gain benefit from research, However, as a physician, it is important that you’re able to read research articles and statistics and understand everything that goes on behind the scenes with researching and the scientific method. The admissions committees are not leaning one way or the other. They only need to make sure you know what life is like as a physician so they're looking for the clinical experience. Major takeaways from this episode: Shadowing shows you what's it's like to be a physician. Clinical experience proves you actually like being around sick people. You don't have to have research (although some schools require it like the University of Utah which have set number of hours of research, shadowing, and volunteering) Look at each of the schools you're interested in applying to. See what they require and then follow what you enjoy the most after all of the requirements are met. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com MSAR Admissions Requirements University of Utah Medical School Admissions

Session 36 In today's episode, Ryan welcomes a question from a student named Matt regarding getting shadowing and clinical experience - how much is enough, what better way to approach a physician, and can you shadow the same physician on a regular basis? Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast as Ryan and Rich pulls a question from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org and delivers the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Matt is a 41-year old student how is extremely excited and nervous about this endeavor; no clinical or shadowing experience; hoping to apply next June and intends to spend the next 8 months shadowing and gaining clinical experience. Will this be sufficient? Or should the application be put off for another year? Matt applied to join the local volunteer rescue squad where he is to commit 35 hours a month; what else can he do to gain clinical exposure? Matt intends to shadow a few physicians across a range of specialties and attempts to spend a bit of time with the ones that feel like the most positive experience. Is there a better approach? Is it appropriate to ask a physician to shadow on a regular basis or is there a point where you are just interrupting his or her job? Here are the insights from Ryan: When you're applying 8 months away from the next application cycle and you don't have any clinical or shadowing experience, yes it is bad. How do you know you want to be a physician without any clinical or shadowing experience? This would be the first red flag to an admissions committee person. Can you get enough clinical and shadowing experience in the next 8 months? Yes, as long as it's quality experience where you hang around enough patients in a clinical setting to know you're okay dealing with sick people. How can you get more clinical experience? Consider being a scribe or any experience where you are close enough to smell the patient. Shadowing experience Shadowing is important to understand what life is like as a physician. You don't need to shadow every specialty out there to see which one you like because that's what medical school is for where you get to rotate different specialties. Your job when shadowing is to only understand what life is like as a physician. Things to consider when shadowing: Setting Physicians working in an academic setting are different than those in an outpatient or community hospital. Try shadowing somebody in an academic hospital setting and somebody in a community hospital setting, as well as in an academic outpatient setting and in a community outpatient setting. Shadowing on a regular basis Yes, you can ask a physician on a regular basis. This is actually great as you're gaining a relationship that you can lean on later for a good letter of recommendation, hopefully. You may interrupt the workflow to some extent but not terribly. If you get a physician that says no, then that's fine and move on to another who says yes. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com

Session 35 In this episode, Ryan answers a question from a poster concerned about what kind of jobs can be done during gap years to help get them into medical school. Ryan makes two important points on the show today which you shouldn’t miss out on. The questions shared on this podcast are taken out of the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster graduated in 2013 with a degree in BS Biological Sciences and Chemistry with one year of research before graduating; decided to become a physician that year and thought of taking a year off to volunteer and study for the MCAT and get a paid research assistant position while applying to medical school. It didn't turn out this way as poster took the pre-2015 MCAT on the last day the exam was offered and ended up with an average score; GPA 3.1. Poster is applying to an academic enhancer postbac program this Fall/Spring while preparing to take the MCAT after the program ends. Writing the personal statement is a challenge with only 6 months volunteer experience at a clinic and 4-month work experience as a medical assistant. Poster wants to know what other medical jobs or opportunities exist that will help a lot for medical school admission; something that utilizes her biology and chemistry knowledge. What sort of jobs can you do with a bachelor's degree before going into medical school that will help you get into medical school? Here are the insights from Ryan: Scores are scores. The 3.1 is below average. The data for medical schools that they provide is an average, a statistical number derived from adding together all of the classes' MCAT scores and GPAs and dividing by the total number of students. So the 3.5 number that you're looking at for a school includes 3's and 3.1's and 3.2's and 3.3's. Don't kill your chances of medical school and not apply just because you don't think you're good enough. Let the medical schools tell you that you're not good enough. Not applying to medical school because thinking you won't get in is definitely not appropriate. On looking for jobs... Don't look for a job that you think will help you get into medical school. Don't do any in your life that you think will help you get into medical school. There are no check boxes to get into medical school. You have to do what you are passionate about. It's hard to find research positions at a university as a non-student so keep on trying. You need to go out and find those relationships with people that will help you get your foot in the door into possible research opportunities. Research is great if that's where your heart is at. It may help you with medical school applications if you're looking to apply to a research-heavy institution. Consider being a scribe: It's an amazing job for gaining the experience of what like if like as a physician and seeing the dynamics of patient care. Being a scribe is one of the best clinical experiences you can get which increases your chances of getting into medical school. Major takeaways from this episode: Don't think about it as what job will help you get into medical school. Think about what you're interested in doing because that will show the most during your medical school interviews. Whether you're passionate about something or not will always come through. Don't just not apply because you're scores are not good enough. Score and stats are just one part of the application. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com www.medicalschoolhq.net/ems

Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where he pulls out a question and deliver the answers right on to you. In today’s episode, Ryan answers a question raised by an NP looking into going to medical school and asks about the need for shadowing experience. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is an NP looking to go back to medical school and become a fully fledged professional. Would want to return to primary care one day as a fully fledged professional on the MD/DO route. As an NP, has worked alongside MD's and DO's in primary care and doing things they do such as patient care. Do you still need to shadow? Is it desirable to still shadow other specialties? Here are the insights from Ryan: The goal of shadowing is to really understand what you're getting yourself into. Shadowing for you may not be required but there is a difference between working as an NP and a physician. Go out and shadow other specialties to be a little bit more well-rounded and understand the fuller picture of what other physicians may do. Shadowing in your case isn't for letters of recommendation but for you to get a bigger picture. Don't necessarily go crazy with your hours. Get maybe 10-40 hours and a couple hours here and there. Links and Other Resources: www.OldPreMeds.org www.themcatpodcast.com

Session 33 The OldPreMeds Podcast started as a collaboration between the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds.org, the site for nontraditional premed and medical students. Currently, Dr. Ryan Gray is the Director of the National Society of Nontraditional Premed and Medical Students and now runs, operates, and publishes OldPreMeds.org which is now part of the Medical School Headquarters. The Medical School Headquarters is also starting a new collaboration with Next Step Test Prep to produce The MCAT Podcast, which has been in the works for several months now. Today, they are sharing with you their very first episode on today's session. The MCAT Podcast is a weekly episode dedicated to the MCAT. Ryan will be mainly talking to Bryan Schnedeker, Next Step Test Prep's MCAT Guru where they discuss the different aspects of the MCAT to help you get a better grip of the MCAT especially being nontraditional students. Go to www.themcatpodcast.com and sign up to be notified when it's going to be on iTunes. What The MCAT Podcast offers: Weekly information all about the MCAT Tips, tricks, and common pitfalls Content to help you break down some of the passages Ways to things about passages How to rule out questions Shorter format (around 10 minutes) Easier to consume John Rood is the Founder and President of Next Step Test Prep which he started in 2009. John has a background in test prep and they started out doing one-on-one tutoring for the professional graduate schools in Chicago until eventually spreading to other cities and going online. In 2013, Bryan Schnedeker joined the company and currently serves as the Vice-President for Next Step's MCAT and Tutoring. Bryan is Next Step's resident MCAT Guru having taught and tutored MCAT students over the past 15 years. About Next Step Test Prep: One-on-one tutoring programs 35,000 students have signed up for different MCAT practice tests and materials Customization is at its core seeking to meet the individual needs of students They have a team of five people working full-time on MCAT content and 15-20 people working part-time on specialized parts of their content. About Ryan Gray: A physician by training (an Air Force flight surgeon for five years) Stumbled into the premed advising world after talking to young airmen in the Air Force about what it's like to go to medical school and coming across a particular website offering very negative and cutthroat information Wanting to create a safe place for people to go and get collaborative information that is not cutthroat and competitive Started the Medical School Headquarters in 2012 Today, Ryan runs the following podcasts: The Premed Years Podcast  - 3 1/2 years old; nominated 2x as a Top Podcast in the Science and Medicine Category; with almost a million downloads The OldPreMeds Podcast Next Step pivoting into providing courses: Going into the course market to put together a course with all the essential resources that any of the other major label courses would have: 12 full-length exams 11 books containing thousands of pages Course priced at $1,300 ($700-$900 less than students would have paid for courses under the legacy pricing system) A Next Step exclusive: Customized study plan tool Diagnostic test followed by a short questionnaire that will allow a generation of a custom unique to you study plan so you're following the best possible prep for your needs Our goals for The MCAT Podcast: Regularly repeating podcast of 5-15 min. mini-lessons on MCAT itself, building study plans, quick reviews, pitfalls and how to avoid them You get a little nugget of MCAT wisdom offering high value to students Links and Other Resources: Go to www.oldpremeds.org/mcatclass and use the coupon code: MCATPOD to save money off their tutoring and 10% off their products www.mcatpodcast.com/subscribe

Session 32 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast are taken directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today's question is about preparing for the medical school interview being a nontraditional student. Ryan lays out some relevant pieces of advice to help students rock the interview come interview day. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is a nontraditional re-applicant who applied very late in the cycle and had a mediocre MCAT score, being her two biggest hurdles. Since then she has worked to improve on several areas of her application and applied early in this year's cycle. She chose to apply to 12 schools and received an interview to interview at a school in August. How do you prepare for interviews particularly for nontraditional students? Here are the insights from Ryan: Know who you are. Know what your future is going to look like. Check out Episodes 192, 19, and 91 of The Premed Years Podcast to get more tips about the medical school interview process. Diversity is key. What does your nontraditional background bring to your classmates and add to the diversity of the class? Diversity is a huge buzzword these days with holistic admissions processes at medical schools. But you have to be able to tell that story as to why you're diverse. Do a mock interview. Talk with somebody who knows the process. Record yourself (audio or video) to see and hear yourself. Make it as real as possible and go through it so you can watch yourself. Get feedback from the person you're talking with on the answers you gave to see how it sounded like to the interviewer. Links and Other Resources: Session 192 www.medicalschoolhq.net/192 Session 19 www.medicalschoolhq.net/19 Session 91 www.medicalschoolhq.net/91 www.medschoolinterviewbook.com

Session 31 In this episode, Ryan focuses on the medical school interview process, an important topic to discuss considering that it's interview season and Ryan has a book coming up on Kindle. Find out more about it on www.medschoolinterviewbook.com and sign up to get notified when it releases. This book will also hit physical bookstores by the first part of next year. Ryan pulls a statement from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org and he discusses how critical preparing for an interview is. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster got an interview feedback from one of the schools they applied to last year. The school quoted the committee stating that they felt the interviewee was extremely nervous, talking very rapidly, so rapidly that they often could not understand what was said. The committee felt as though the interviewee came across as closed-minded and lacking of self-awareness due to a combination of the choice of words and phrases used during the interview as well as the inability to fully answer some questions. Some comments were not received favorably by the committee and viewed as very disrespectful. Poster is at a loss as to how to correct this. Here are the insights from Ryan: This is what happens if you don't prepare properly for your interviews. Mock interviews are very, very important to understand how the words floating around your head come out of your mouth and land on the interviewer. It's your job to make sure the words you're saying land favorably on the interviewer. You can't control everybody listening to you to agree with you but if you're saying stuff that are very off-putting then you're obviously doing something wrong. As you prepare for your interviews, record yourself with a video camera or an audio recorder. Have somebody go through the interview process with you. If you need a list of questions, check out www.medschoolinterviewbook.com to sign up and get notified when the book is released. It contains almost 600 possible questions as well as questions you can throw at your interviewers. The book also has over 50 real answer from mock interviews Ryan has done with students including the feedback he gave to students. Links and Other Resources: OldPreMeds.org www.medschoolinterviewbook.com

Session 30 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today, the questions revolves around the interview process and the feedback they received from a physician about the interview process. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster had a talk with a neurosurgery resident and gave so much insight into the journey, highlighting the fact that entry to medical school is not a destination. He is in the last year of residency as a chief resident after 18 years of education and residency. Poster shares the resident's insights and the deal breaker is the actual interview where only personality matters subject to the interviewer. Poster wants to ask any other insights into the interview. Here are the insights from Ryan: There are no such things as GPA and MCAT cutoffs. If you got an interview at a medical school, they've taken the leap of faith that your scores are competitive enough to be a student at that school. Once you have your interview and matched up among everybody else that had an interview, your GPA and MCAT still might fall short. If you have a perfect interview against another perfect interview of a student and everything else is equal but the other student has a higher MCAT score or GPA, they might get the spot over you. Go into the interview thinking that the acceptance is yours to lose. You have to be there prepared and ready to go. Over the years, schools have been refining what they use to select students. The AAMC has the core competencies that medical schools look at. Then the medical schools look at your applications, secondaries, interview skills and comparing you to a core competency list which takes some subjectivity out of it. Ryan is releasing an interview book soon on Amazon as well as its print version. Go to www.medschoolinterviewbook.com to sign up and be notified when the book releases or if it's already out. Major takeaway from this episode: Personality is not the only thing that matters and that it is subject to the interview. Personality matters in everything in life and you need to be prepared for that interview. Links and Other Resources: www.medschoolinterviewbook.com

Session 29 Today's episode is a lot different from the previous sessions where Ryan and Rich pull out a question from the OldPreMeds.org forum. In this session, Ryan reads out a post sent by someone over at the same forum as he bids goodbye to being a premed. Hopefully, this session will help you gain insights into your journey towards becoming a physician and pay attention to your thought process as to whether this is something that you really like and if so, whether you’re willing to put all the work in. Some points from the poster’s letter: Realizing this is not a path he/she will complete Struggling for the past six years to study for the MCAT but unfruitful Having very poor study habits and knowledge of the MCAT sciences is very lacking Only made it through college because professors were generous at allowing them cheat sheets during exams and having open book during the final exams “You have to ask yourself if you want it. Then you have to ask yourself if you want it bad enough to actually put the work into it and do it.” Poster’s realizations: Not willing to put the effort into overcoming the barriers of entry to medical school. He/she values time to self and family more than the prospect of becoming a doctor Enjoys being a musician more than studying for the MCAT which he/she finds stressful and depressing “My admission here is not that I do not think I'm capable. It is that I do not think I am willing. Too much false hope from too many people and not enough listening to those who warned me along the way. Not enough paying attention to how the really hard classes indicated that I would not make it.” Here are the insights from Ryan: This is a very common thought process for people as they make the decision of whether or not to continue this path or jump ship and find something else to do. Take some time and do some self-inspection. Figure out if this is really what you want to do. You have to be willing to put in the time and effort to do well in your classes. Take a deep look inside yourself and ask yourself if this is worth it.

Session 28 Ryan and Rich again shed light on your questions directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org. This week they particularly talk about the importance of writing your extracurriculars and meaningful statements well. It can't just be a job description but it should show how you are as a person. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: A question coming from a reapplicant asking about redoing the extracurriculars. Do they need to rewrite their extracurriculars and the most meaningful essays they're selecting for their three big extracurriculars? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Things to consider: How extensive have you been? Has anything been changed and updated? You may get by without extensively rewriting your extracurriculars and meaningful statements for the most of the secondary applications. So it's not bad to continue with what you've had. But if you've reapplied to schools before with the same information and it hasn't worked then consider what you're being effective. Have someone who does not know you well critically analyze your writing prior to getting into another application cycle as this somehow mimics the members of the admissions committee that don't know you at all. Student really spend time on the personal statement and the first two secondaries. But people overlook the extracurriculars, which need to be well-written. They should be: Concise Coherent Compelling Short paragraphs Your extracurricular statement must show you as a person. Characteristics Intelligence Motivation Commitment Attention to detail Major takeaway from this episode: Be sincere about your motivation and your story. Start with your core or why and move from there. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com www.medschoolinterviewbook.com

Session 27 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is a current massage therapist. She is in training for a clinical massage training. Would massage therapy become more accepted and being an alternative modality in the health field, how is this going to be viewed by medical schools? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Massage therapy is a licensed field in most states. A lot of schools that offer it are accredited secondary institutions. Rich doesn't think that most medical schools will think that it will add much to your application. It's not patient contact per se nor is it volunteering. But it's a work experience that you can list. Other experiences you need to get include are volunteering and shadowing. There are massage therapists who work in more clinical settings like nursing homes, some physical therapy practices and osteopathic practices in some hospitals for patients. If you're able to find positions such as these then this may be useful to your medical school application.

Session 26 In today's episode, Ryan and Rich discuss how to go about it when you’re considering to retake the MCAT as well as the minimum MCAT score required by different medical schools. As always, this question has been pulled out by Ryan and Rich from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org so they can bring the answers directly right onto you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Student is working full time and with two boys; took the MCAT for the first time in September (which is a bit late) and received scores in October; looking at schools they're interested in applying to but only one of them had a minimum percentile listed. MCAT score of 504 and trying to figure out what to do next. Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: The ultimate rule for MCAT: Do not take the test until you are ready. When are you ready to take the MCAT: Having completed the prerequisites to have sound foundation in the basic sciences and other subjects for the MCAT Timing the exam Taking prep and practice exams Feeling confident to go in and take the exam How schools screen scores: Most schools don't have a specific minimum for the MCAT. When they screen the applicant, they don't really screen them. They may have a minimum screening to send you a secondary. Most schools may have a formula that takes your GPA and MCAT with a minimum score to review somebody or not. The reject review step: An application that does not make their minimum scores. Application is physically reviewed by somebody to check if there is any issue. What is the average minimum? 124-125 in each section should be considered about the minimum How do you succeed on the MCAT in this case? Consider quitting full time job and study for the test again full-time Include MCAT prep over a longer period Whatever method you pick, have a disciplined study routine Do not take the MCAT until you're ready. Make sure you're solid two weeks before the exam and ready to go. Ryan recommends using Cram Fighter that provides you with a study schedule to keep track and stay on task Major takeaway from this episode: Take the MCAT only when you're ready. You need to have your head game there or you will not do well. Have a plan. Links and Other Resources: www.cramfighter.com www.mededmedia.com

Brian shares his nontraditional path to medicine, which included teaching for 9 years before realizing that medicine was truly his calling. Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post www.medicalschoolhq.net/mockinterviews

Session 25 In today's episode, Ryan and Rich take a question pulled out directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org as they discuss getting a master's program versus postbac program. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster, Megan, is a 27-year old professional with accumulative undergrad GPA of 3.04; currently enrolled in a master's degree program in molecular biology and biochemistry. She is now wondering if she should stop her master's degree program and go back and do more postbac work to help erase some of her other previous grades. Should she drop out of her master's program and go back and do undergrad classes for postbac? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Go to AMCAS and AACOMAS to do grade conversions and get an idea of what you're year by year grade in science versus nonscience and get an idea of what your grade trends are. Master's programs are tricky in that their GPAs will not directly enhance a weak undergraduate GPA. They also have a reputation of awarding grades surely high for most graduate programs. Postbacs and SMPs designed specifically for a premed have more traction. If you're doing it part-time while working full-time, this is not something you can finish a year and go back and do something else. This all depends on what your undergraduate record looks like and what paths you may want to go, whether you need to do grade replacement and focus on a DO route, or have some good upward grade trends that can be salvageable for MD route or how far along are you from the master's to prevent the motivation and commitment question that will come out in some ad com's eyes. Major takeaway from this episode: A traditional master's program still is not going to be as acceptable or impactful as a special master's program or a postbac depending on your background. However, some schools may look at a master's degree more heavily. Some even use it to replace an undergrad GPA. Links and Other Resources: AACOMAS AMCAS www.mededmedia.com

Session 24 In today's episode, Ryan and Rich take another question directly from the OldPreMeds.org and they specifically discuss how getting academically dismissed in undergrad can possibly hurt your chances of getting into medical school. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is a student, 35 years old (by the time they will apply to medical school); thinking about transferring to finish their Bachelor's degree; academically dismissed from undergrad ad transferred credits to community college and now wants to finish at another four-year institution. How is this going to hurt their chances of going to medical school? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Being dismissed is a major issue and has to be reported. A few considerations: When was the student dismissed? During freshmen year who got wild and got thrown out? Or somebody who spent three years struggling and got thrown out? How far in your career have you gone? How long ago was that? There are medical schools that like "redemption" - people who have shown they've come out of their academic holed and climbed up. Students going to a community college generally have very few credits from their original degree: You have to write a concise and compelling narrative explaining the pattern of failure to success. Consider the DO route that considers grade replacement so you can make up for some of the failures you took during undergraduate. A well-crafted application applying to a target rigorous school can make the person successful in getting into medical school. You can only go forward. There is nothing else you can do in a case like this. You have to deal with whatever the application interview comes up with. Major takeaway from this episode: Keep on and don't think it's impossible. Own up to your mistakes as you go forward and be able to talk about them. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com The Premed Years Episode 174

Session 22 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan jumps into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where he pulls a question and delivers the answers right on to you. In today's episode, Ryan tackles the topic on taking a postbac or SMP for a 32-year old science major with a lot of credits while having poor numbers. Listen in to learn more about this.  OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster is a 32-year old nontraditional premed student; graduated in 2007 with a chemistry/computer science double major; Science GPA with 3.05 and accumulative of 3.13; lots of credits to GPA's. Should they take the basic prerequisite science classes considering the not-so-stellar grades? Formal postbac program would be great but most of them specify that the applicant cannot have more than 50% science grades completed. Here are the insights from Ryan: Two types of postbac programs: Career-changers Where you haven't taken a lot of science courses They don't want you to have any of your sciences done or at least not a lot of them done Record-enhancers You went through school as a science major, knew you wanted to be premed, but you struggled so you need help to enhance your GPA They have specific postbac programs for students like this poster Out of 223 postbac programs, there are 152 record-enhancing programs Are SMP's high risk? SMP's are great because they're usually tied to the medical school and you're taking classes with medical students You are performing for the school to say that you're doing just as well as their medical students and that you're building relationships Caveat: If you do the math to enhance the record with a lot of credits to take more science courses and get straight A's, the GPA is not going to move very much. In this case, consider a special masters program because it will be a separate grade in the application. Links and Other Resources: OldPreMeds.org AAMC List of Postbac Programs - Special Program Focus MedEdMedia.com

Session 21 In this episode, Ryan pulls out a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums. It's all about working and volunteering and how to squeeze it all in. Ryan also covers a very important aspect of applying to medical school when it comes to updating your application. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is a student in a premed postbac program and will finish next year and applying for 2018 matriculation; with 30 hours of shadowing and three months of volunteering experience at a clinic; working at a radiology department for transport about 25 hours a week; and bartending 1-2 nights a week to pay the bills. Poster finds it difficult to volunteer with a year plus to work and volunteer after postbac before matriculation, but is it too late to add volunteer hours to the resume? Here are the insights from Ryan: Updating your AMCAS application as your resume grows: Once you submit your application for verification, there are only a few things that you can change in your AMCAS application and your extracurriculars are NOT one of them. The only things you can update are: ID number, name, address, contact information, date of birth, sex Letters of recommendations MCAT test dates Schools you're applying to Release of application information to your prehealth advisor What you can do, however, is send an individual letter to each of the application services (which means you have to add in some work sending individual letters or emails to each of the schools you applied to updating them about it) Work versus volunteer: Volunteer experience is very important while work is also very important in order to pay your bills so it's basically a personal decision. Everybody is different with the amount of work they have to do and the amount of bills they have to pay. Major takeaway from this episode: Choosing between work and volunteering is a personal decision but you have to keep in mind that lack of clinical experience is one of the biggest reasons students aren't getting into medical school. Links and Other Resources: The Premed Years Session 171

Session 20 In today's episode, Ryan talks with Kate, a 56-year old 3rd year medical student at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine as she  shares with us her path to becoming a physician. Kate was initially a bio premed major until she decided to stop and pursue a career as a nurse until changing careers to becoming a nurse midwife and doing another career change into finally becoming a physician. Kate is definitely proof that anything is possible. Anyone can get into medical school. You just need to put in the work and you'll get there. Listen in to Kate’s amazing journey! Here are the highlights of the conversation with Kate: Kate's path to becoming a physician: Decided to become a doctor when she was 10 Interest in rural family practice growing up in rural locations for the  most part of her life Initially a biology premed major until midway through college Transferred to a nursing program in her junior year Working as a nurse midwife for 13 years prior to medical school Switching from being a nurse to a nurse midwife and a teacher in nursing Deciding to go back to medical school at the age of 50 Why Kate decided to stop being premed the first time: Medical school as having a cutthroat environment Finding the length of education to be overwhelming Found interest in what the nurses are doing and wanting immediate gratification The thought of raising kids Lack of research into the whole thing when she made her decision The driving force that made her decide to get into medical school: Being involved in her local community and seeing the need for primary care Seeing physicians as a really huge instrument for change especially in the effective organization around  public health issues Thirst for knowledge and wanting to become a "change" agent Resources she tapped into initially: Kate googled "old premedical students" which led her to OldPreMeds.org Knowing what prerequisites were needed Her family physicians Taking her postbac program: Not being able to get to the classes she needed Ended up applying to two schools for a "structured" postbac program Quitting her job to do the program full time Having that fear in terms of finances Getting the finances: Applying to the National Health Service Corps each year and not getting it Applying for loan repayment program as her plan B Considerations for choosing the schools she applied to: Emphasis on rural primary care and global medical outreach Geography (closer to family) Specifically choosing osteopathic medical schools but ended up applying to 6 DO schools and 6 MD schools and getting 6 interviews The interview process: Having a collegiate footing with the interviewer being a nurse educator herself Giving her an edge as a nontraditional old premed having had some experiences The biggest obstacle that she had overcome: Talking herself out of trying Links and Other Resources: West Virginia School of Medicine National Health Service Corps OldPreMeds.org AAMC list of postbac programs If you need any help with the medical school interview, go to medschoolinterviewbook.com. Sign up and you will receive parts of the book so you can help shape the future of the book. This book will include over 500 questions that may be asked during interview day as well as real-life questions, answers, and feedback from all of the mock interviews Ryan has been doing with students. Are you a nontraditional student? Go check out oldpremeds.org. For more great content, check out www.mededmedia.com for more of the shows produced by the Medical School Headquarters including the OldPremeds Podcast and watch out for more shows in the future! Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we'll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us. Email Ryan at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq

Session 19 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. This is a common question for non traditional students who have to juggle time taking care of family, test prep, classes, and so many other things that some of them might even get left out. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Finished undergrad with a double major in English Literature and Spanish Language; decent GPA; struggled in the Science prerequisites; not getting a lot of volunteering and shadowing done. Should you apply with such little experience? Or should you take some time and get the experience you need under your belt before applying? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: A common assumption that the more you do as an undergrad in terms of academia, the better candidate you are - that's not always the case. All your grades for allopathic medical schools will count whether you retake them or not. Medical school want to see: Motivation Commitment Achievement Commitment must be shown through extracurriculars that you've committed to for some time You want to be the strongest applicant on your first application you can be. Not having sufficient volunteering, shadowing, extracurriculars will make you a weaker candidate. Consider taking time until you have those experiences under the belt to become a stronger, more competitive candidate. Shadowing vs. volunteering: Volunteering is when you're doing something for others (clinic, nursing home, geriatric care, etc.) Shadowing is something you do for yourself (following a doctor around) Links and Other Resources: The Premed Years podcast session 171 - Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve The Premed Years podcast session 75 - What Are My Chances of Getting into Med School? If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 18 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today's question is quite interesting as it pertains to busy nontraditional students who may not have time to go to classes and the risk of taking online coursework over the in-campus classes. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Can you use an online degree for medical school? The poster considers doing an online degree as an older nontraditional student. They've email premed consultants and directly to medical schools and thinking about doing a BA online at the University of Florida. Final 30 hours would be online and completing premed coursework at a local campus. Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Some places online courses but most schools do not accept that. MSAR lists which schools will accept or not accept online prerequisites Undergrad institutions providing online courses are putting their name on the course. These schools would argue that their online course is as good as any course that they teach in-campus so in all the transcripts you won't know whether it's an online class or not. Medical schools would like to see whether it's online or not. They may ask a question on your secondary to state if you're taking any online coursework. If you're doing the prerequisites in an actual campus and the rest of the degree online, there still could be some risks to it. It could limit you to what medical schools to apply to It may put you at a competitive disadvantage in the applicant pool Major takeaway from this episode: It is such a time-consuming and expensive process to apply to medical school so you wouldn't want to run such a risk. If taking an online course is a risk worth taking, go for it. Don't rely on one just one medical school to apply to. Do your research. Check out the MSAR or the CIB to arrive at the best decision possible. Links and Other Resources MSAR CIB If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Ryan Gray turned his education and passion into an online business to help premed students succeed! Ryan Gray is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force. Ryan graduated from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences, and received his M.D. from New York Medical College. After graduating from medical school, Ryan completed his internship through a Tufts Medical Center transitional medicine program at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Ryan is the publisher of MedicalSchoolHQ.net and OldPreMeds.org and the podcast host of The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. He is also the Director of the National Society of Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students. Matt and I take the first hour and a half to talk about a ton of topics that have been burning on my mind this past week! Interview with Dr Ryan Gray May 20th 2 year anniversary charity event  The Temps movie doing so well on its opening week. Ryan Sage interview back on episode 94.  Quality over quantity when it comes to making friends and connections. Bringing networks of people together can move mountains.  Update on #EverythingPaysRent money intake ( over $10,000 received so far)  How do I stay motivated?  Joe you are supposed to slow down, aren't you overwhelmed? Keep a running check list of things that need to be done in the near future and a future list for things that you want to accomplish in the distant future. Break them down to smallest tasks so you don't overwhelm yourself and put them off. Talk about how much money do you have to make before you can compromise yourself. Mike's job has amazing benefits. But it's essentially not enough work to make him fulfilled. Soul sucking. Do we not take advice of pweoplr we know seriously enough? Extremism and how we are forced into having to be extreme or be ignored. Google Play Store now has podcasts! Tony Hawk 2 where are they now? Slick Rick becomes US citizen after 23 years and more to announce Shoot me your questions to Joe@SuperJoePardo.com https://youtu.be/8MV3ULJ5jDg Episode 226

Ryan Gray turned his education and passion into an online business to help premed students succeed! Ryan Gray is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force. Ryan graduated from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences, and received his M.D. from New York Medical College. After graduating from medical school, Ryan completed his internship through a Tufts Medical Center transitional medicine program at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Ryan is the publisher of MedicalSchoolHQ.net and OldPreMeds.org and the podcast host of The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. He is also the Director of the National Society of Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students. Matt and I take the first hour and a half to talk about a ton of topics that have been burning on my mind this past week! Interview with Dr Ryan Gray May 20th 2 year anniversary charity event  The Temps movie doing so well on its opening week. Ryan Sage interview back on episode 94.  Quality over quantity when it comes to making friends and connections. Bringing networks of people together can move mountains.  Update on #EverythingPaysRent money intake ( over $10,000 received so far)  How do I stay motivated?  Joe you are supposed to slow down, aren't you overwhelmed? Keep a running check list of things that need to be done in the near future and a future list for things that you want to accomplish in the distant future. Break them down to smallest tasks so you don't overwhelm yourself and put them off. Talk about how much money do you have to make before you can compromise yourself. Mike's job has amazing benefits. But it's essentially not enough work to make him fulfilled. Soul sucking. Do we not take advice of pweoplr we know seriously enough? Extremism and how we are forced into having to be extreme or be ignored. Google Play Store now has podcasts! Tony Hawk 2 where are they now? Slick Rick becomes US citizen after 23 years and more to announce Shoot me your questions to Joe@SuperJoePardo.com https://youtu.be/8MV3ULJ5jDg Episode 226

Ryan Gray turned his education and passion into an online business to help premed students succeed! Ryan Gray is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force. Ryan graduated from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences, and received his M.D. from New York Medical College. After graduating from medical school, Ryan completed his internship through a Tufts Medical Center transitional medicine program at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Ryan is the publisher of MedicalSchoolHQ.net and OldPreMeds.org and the podcast host of The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. He is also the Director of the National Society of Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students. Matt and I take the first hour and a half to talk about a ton of topics that have been burning on my mind this past week! Interview with Dr Ryan Gray May 20th 2 year anniversary charity event  The Temps movie doing so well on its opening week. Ryan Sage interview back on episode 94.  Quality over quantity when it comes to making friends and connections. Bringing networks of people together can move mountains.  Update on #EverythingPaysRent money intake ( over $10,000 received so far)  How do I stay motivated?  Joe you are supposed to slow down, aren't you overwhelmed? Keep a running check list of things that need to be done in the near future and a future list for things that you want to accomplish in the distant future. Break them down to smallest tasks so you don't overwhelm yourself and put them off. Talk about how much money do you have to make before you can compromise yourself. Mike's job has amazing benefits. But it's essentially not enough work to make him fulfilled. Soul sucking. Do we not take advice of pweoplr we know seriously enough? Extremism and how we are forced into having to be extreme or be ignored. Google Play Store now has podcasts! Tony Hawk 2 where are they now? Slick Rick becomes US citizen after 23 years and more to announce Shoot me your questions to Joe@SuperJoePardo.com https://youtu.be/8MV3ULJ5jDg Episode 226

Ryan Gray turned his education and passion into an online business to help premed students succeed! Ryan Gray is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force. Ryan graduated from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences, and received his M.D. from New York Medical College. After graduating from medical school, Ryan completed his internship through a Tufts Medical Center transitional medicine program at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Ryan is the publisher of MedicalSchoolHQ.net and OldPreMeds.org and the podcast host of The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. He is also the Director of the National Society of Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students. Matt and I take the first hour and a half to talk about a ton of topics that have been burning on my mind this past week! Interview with Dr Ryan Gray May 20th 2 year anniversary charity event  The Temps movie doing so well on its opening week. Ryan Sage interview back on episode 94.  Quality over quantity when it comes to making friends and connections. Bringing networks of people together can move mountains.  Update on #EverythingPaysRent money intake ( over $10,000 received so far)  How do I stay motivated?  Joe you are supposed to slow down, aren't you overwhelmed? Keep a running check list of things that need to be done in the near future and a future list for things that you want to accomplish in the distant future. Break them down to smallest tasks so you don't overwhelm yourself and put them off. Talk about how much money do you have to make before you can compromise yourself. Mike's job has amazing benefits. But it's essentially not enough work to make him fulfilled. Soul sucking. Do we not take advice of pweoplr we know seriously enough? Extremism and how we are forced into having to be extreme or be ignored. Google Play Store now has podcasts! Tony Hawk 2 where are they now? Slick Rick becomes US citizen after 23 years and more to announce Shoot me your questions to Joe@SuperJoePardo.com https://youtu.be/8MV3ULJ5jDg Episode 226

Ryan clarifies an answer he gave on last weeks podcast to help drive home his message. Also an exciting announcement about The MCAT Podcast! Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post Session 177 Session 12 OldPreMeds podcast Go to theMCATpodcast.com and sign up to be notified once we launch the newest addition to MedEdMedia here at Medical School Headquarters. If you need any help with the medical school interview, go to medschoolinterviewbook.com. Sign up and you will receive parts of the book so you can help shape the future of the book. This book will include over 500 questions that may be asked during interview day as well as real-life questions, answers, and feedback from all of the mock interviews Ryan has been doing with students. Are you a nontraditional student? Go check out oldpremeds.org. For more great content, check out www.mededmedia.com for more of the shows produced by the Medical School Headquarters including the OldPremeds Podcast and watch out for more shows in the future! Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we’ll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us. Next Step Test Prep: Get one-on-one tutoring for the MCAT and maximize your score. Get $50 off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website. Check out their 10-full length practice tests that you can take. Listen to our podcast for free at iTunes: medicalschoolhq.net/itunes and leave us a review there! Email Ryan at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq

Session 17 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today, they cover tips you need to know when making your school list in narrowing down which medical schools to apply to. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: How do you sort through the 150+ medical schools out there and pick the ones that you apply to? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Tips in creating your med school list: Get a copy of the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirement) published by AAMC) which summarizes each school of their class, their setup, requirements, and their average GPA and MCAT score. For the osteopathic schools, check the College Information Book to get the same information. Take a realistic look at your grades and see if you're going to fit within the range of the medical schools you're applying to. For nontraditional students consider to increase your overall GPA even though the actual may be a little bit lower. Consider all the schools in your state, both state schools and the private schools. Consider it a part of your normal broad application process. State schools look at the factor of being in-state or out of state. States will look at in-state applicants closer than out of state applicants. Some things you need to consider: Most students apply between 12 and 24 schools. City or more rural Specialty of the school you want to be associated with. Weather Major takeaway from this episode: Pick your schools wisely because it's a big part in the application process and a great deal of money is involved too. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 15 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Taken directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org, Ryan and Rich pick a question and deliver the answers right on to you. For this week, Ryan and Rich discuss about course timing and coursework expiration. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster took coursework 30 years ago and wasn't premed at that time. She retook most of the lower division coursework 7-9 years ago. During the intervening years, she was doing some upper division stuff, studying for the MCAT and taking care of life. Their advisor suggested that the prereqs should be taken within five years of applying to medical school. Is there an expiration for coursework? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: For most school, there is no set expiration for prereqs. In the last couple of years, medical schools would like to see the coursework within 5 years or some evidence of academic achievement during the past 5 years (if you have completed degrees before that) Becoming more complex because the AAMC has changed the MCAT recently adding more content. For prereqs approaching 10 years, consider retaking some of the courses or continue taking the advanced classes. Basic or introductory classes change rapidly. In general, there is no requirement or specific timing on your prereqs. It usually depends on the school you’re applying to. Major takeaway from this episode: Get the definitive answer to go to the medical school that you're interested in applying to and ask them what they think. Links and Other Resources: If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching an MCAT podcast and a medical school-focused podcast so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 10 Every week, we answer your questions here on the OldPreMeds Podcast where Ryan and Rich Levy again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org, pull a question, and deliver the answers right on to you. Today, however, is a fun and unique episode as we re-introduce Rich and get to know him more in-depth… Here are the highlights of the conversation with Rich Levy Rich’s path to the OldPreMeds.org Having the epiphany of wanting to go back to medical school in 2002 Coming across the website for the National Society for Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students, otherwise known as OldPreMeds.org, a small online group that he got involved with By 2005, Rich took over as the group's business manager, running conferences Rich has helped develop the organization into a much more solid and effective resource for nontraditional students Getting to see all the sides of the medical school application process giving Rich a different view and understanding Factors that did not allow Rich to go to medical school Personal relationships Monetary considerations Financial crisis Lessons learned from taking the postbac To prove to medical schools that he can do it. To prove to your yourself that you want to do it, willing to work this hard and long to get to some place Major takeaway from this episode Consider postbac as much expensive place, time, effort, and resources to answer that question and realize in your first year that you can't really do this. Links and Other Resources Check out Tim Horeczko’s podcast The Pediatrics Emergency Medicine Playbook If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 8 In this podcast, Ryan and Rich take a plunge into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today, they discuss about the issue on age especially when considering to take an MD/PhD program. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: MD/PhD possible at age 40? Embarking on a premed journey at 40 years old and planning to start his postbac courses this Fall at a 4-year college. If he started medschool at 43 with a 7-year MD/PhD program plus a 4-year residency, he won't be working until 54. With a PhD in Social Science discipline and NPH and working at public health and related fields. Is it worth considering going back and doing the MD/PhD at their age and with the education already gained? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: More training involved Age does not impact medical admissions. However, MD/PhD is a little bit different as it's geared towards biomedical research, bench research, wet research, and is perceived to be a more conservative, disciplined group of people so this involves more training. Difficult program Geared towards hard core research (laboratory, in-depth scientific research) and applicants who apply for these have a significant amount of in-depth research (many of them have original or near-original work) so they are highly sought-after spots because they are supported (paid for completely through the medical science training program and monthly stipend) Other things to consider Long time in school Many people who do medical research only have an MD People who do clinical/ lab research or more geared towards the social aspects of medicine, an MD is more than enough a degree to do that with. It is going to be a difficult road for a non-traditional student without significant research background to get into an MD/PhD program. Major takeaway from this episode While you can have it, what else are you going to give up in order to get it? This is a personal choice you have to make for yourself, for your partners, and your family. Links and Other Resources Learn more about Jessica's story who received 10 acceptances to medical school at medicalschoolhq.net/168. If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 7 Every week, Ryan and Rich share their thoughts and insights here on the OldPreMeds Podcast as they seek to answer the questions raised over at the OldPreMeds.org. In today's episode, the question is all about children and medical school, specifically mentioning children in your application. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Do you mention your children in the application especially if it adds to your narrative of why you wanted to become a doctor? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: If your children have anything to do with your forthcoming, motivations, desires, and commitment to medicine then it is certainly important to mention that. Can you put down parenting as an extracurricular? No, if it's just being a parent in itself. But if you're doing things around your child that are organized (e.g. PTA, little league coach, soccer coach) these can be activities that would list well on an extracurricular activity. How do the admissions committees look at students with children? Parents who are on the admissions committees would probably look highly on someone who has been able to successfully got good grades, MCAT scores, and has been able to take care of two kids while doing a full time job. This is a show of discipline in her efforts and a high level of maturity and responsibility. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Session 61 of The Medical School Headquarters Podcast - Medical School Mom – Prioritizing Family, School and More Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 6 Ryan and Rich answer your questions over at the OldPreMeds.orghere on the OldPreMeds Podcast. In today's episode, they will touch on letters of recommendation - what the admissions committee is looking for, how to get strong ones, and when is the best time to get them. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: How do you get a good letters of recommendation? Do you need to take more upper division science course work to get a good letter of recommendation? Does the letter of recommendation need to come from a professor you interacted recently? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Many medical schools require 2 science professors and 1 non-science professor for a letter of recommendation What the admissions committee wants to see from the letter of recommendation: How you're evaluated in a class setting in recent history Ways to get good letters of recommendation: Take another course or two and make an attempt to network and get a letter written. Get a committee letter which takes away the need for specific individual letter requirements and get one overall evaluation from your undergraduate school. Some schools have recommendations for nontraditional students SUNY Upstate Medical School- Students who graduated more than 5 years ago and are currently employed may submit one letter of recommendation from a current supervisor or someone form a science faculty they took a course from a while ago Weill Cornell Medicine (Cornell University)- Supervisor at work or research professor; students working in career fields like nursing or other medical fields can get a letter of recommendation from a supervisor from a physician you work with that may be useful General Note:Students (nontraditional especially) should think about networking when they start going back to medical school because they need to get good letters of recommendation. When is the time to get letters of recommendation? Don't wait until application season to ask for letters of recommendation.  You can have your letters sent to Interfolio.com and they will hold on to the letters until you're ready to apply to medical school. If you feel that a person is going to write you a strong letter of recommendation, ask for it even if you're applying next year. Major takeaways from this episode: Make an effort to network and even as you go into medical school, network early because you will need letters of recommendation again when you apply for residency. Schools have different specific requirements for letters of recommendation so check out the MSAR and go through the College Information Book to find out what each school wants for letters. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@oldpremeds.org or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

In this episode, Ryan introduces the OldPreMeds podcast, which you can find at OPMPodcast.com. Take a listen! Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post dopremedright.com – Buy a t-shirt while there are supplies! OldPreMeds.org Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 2 In this episode, Ryan and Rich dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: What age is too old for medical school? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Age is not a factor. Here are some facts and figures: About a thousand a year over the age of 30 matriculate every year into an allopath medical school which is about 5% of the total number of students who start the year. From that number, about 200 are of the age of 35. About 350 people a year over the age of 31 start osteopathic school 10-12 people a year over the age of 50 start medical school Success Story: One of our more recent success stories is Laisha Heedman, a nurse/midwife who recently graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine at the age of 57. She has gone onto residency and family practice medicine. Is there any bias that goes on with age? The percentage of applicants is nearly the same as the percentage that you get accepted regardless of age range. Applicants who are above 40 years of age seem to be less represented but there is no bias going on. Factors that may be affecting the demographics are difficulty in preparing, getting the grades, and doing things that need to get done when you are working full time and you have a family. Many people who have been successful in other medical careers such as nurse/midwife, nurse practitioner, nurse, PhD researchers have also been successful at getting  into medical school at 40 and above. MD vs DO? The applicant base for MD schools is about 50,000 while for DO schools, it's under 20,000 - large difference. For an applicant per seat basis, it is therefore more competitive to get into an osteopathic school than it is to get into an allopathic school. Do older students have less years of good working time? Different variables to consider: Burnout as one of the common issues of physicians Prior working experience in healthcare as a nurse/midwife or other medical-related What the admissions committee will actually be looking for: Will this person be a good physician that you want to be treated by? Links and Other Resources OldPreMeds.org Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 1 Welcome to the inaugural episode of the OldPreMeds Podcast! OldPreMeds.org is a site dedicated to nontraditional premed and medical students. This podcast is going to take questions that students post in the forums over at OldPreMeds.org which will be turned into episodes. Your questions will be answered to help you on this journey to becoming a physician. If you're a nontraditional student entering the medical field on your terms and you may have some hiccups along the way or perhaps changing careers and you're ready to change course to go back and serve others as a physician, then this podcast is here to help answer your questions and educate you. The OldPreMeds Podcast is published by Dr. Ryan Gray who is also the publisher of the Medical School Headquarters Podcast, which has been around for more than 3 years now. A Brief Overview - Who We Are OldPreMeds.org was founded in 1998 by six slightly older students who were getting harassed for some online forum for an MCAT prep course. They decided to create a mailing list that began with six students. Rich Levy eventually got involved with the site since 2002 and formally took over eight years after serving as both executive director and publisher of the OldPreMeds.org. OldPreMeds.org has now joined the family of Medical School Headquarters where Ryan has taken over on the role of publisher of the OldPreMeds.org website as well as in helping direct the society that it runs under. Currently, the site has over 10,000 registered members and over 25,000 monthly unique visitors, being the largest organization that is solely dedicated to nontraditional students who tread the path of medicine. OldPreMeds.org  is founded under the auspices of the National Society for Nontraditional Premedical & Medical Students. Where we are headed to moving forward What used to be the nontraditional is now the new traditional and with so much misinformation out today both for nontraditional students and the regular students about medical school prospecting and application, we are dedicated to overcome this major challenge and put clear emphasis on accurate, referenceable, attributable information. OldPreMeds.org provides a safe place for students to go and ask questions and not be judged in the same way that you will be in other sites. Rich is not exiting completely as he will still get on the podcast, along with Ryan, to share their wisdom to listeners. If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Links and Other Resources OldPreMeds.org Visit medicalschoolhq.net for tons of information about the premed journey Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Ryan answers questions that were sent in by listeners like you! Calculating your premed GPA, raising your GPA after you have graduated, and MCAT prep are some. Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post Free MCAT Gift: Free 30+ page guide with tips and tricks to help you maximize your MCAT score and which also includes discount codes for MCAT prep. Check out our partner magazine, www.premedlife.com to learn more about awesome premed information. New issue published every 2 months!  Next Step Test Prep: Get one-on-one tutoring for the MCAT and maximize your score. Get discount off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website. Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we’ll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us. Check out OldPreMeds.org if you have other more questions and get tons of great information from them. Get us free on your device. Subscribe and listen to new episodes each week. Visit www.medicalschoolhq.net/listen Listen to our podcast for free at iTunes: medicalschoolhq.net/itunes and leave us a review there! Email me at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with me on Twitter @medicalschoolhq

Rich Levy from OldPreMeds.org joins us for the second time to talk non-traditional premed news and his upcoming conference. If you're a non-trad, check it out! Links and Other Resourceshttps://medicalschoolhq.net/mshq-115-oldpremeds-executive-director-and-non-traditional-premed-expert/ (Full Episode Blog Post) Check out my https://medicalschoolhq.net/books (Premed Playbook) series of books (available on https://medicalschoolhq.net/books (Amazon)), with installments on https://amzn.to/2EhxhRf (the personal statement), https://amzn.to/2lHXoux (the medical school interview), and https://amzn.to/2vVQpU5 (the MCAT). Related episode: https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-1-introduction-oldpremeds-podcast/ (Introduction to the OldPreMeds Podcast). Related episode: https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-6-how-to-get-the-best-letters-of-recommendation-as-a-nontrad/ (How to Get Letters of Recommendation as a Nontrad). Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” for 10% off Next Step full-length practice tests or “MSHQTOC” for $50 off MCAT tutoring or the Next Step MCAT Course at https://medicalschoolhq.net/nextstep (Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep))!

Rich Levy from OldPreMeds.org joins us for the second time to talk non-traditional premed news and his upcoming conference. If you're a non-trad, check it out! Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post Check out my Premed Playbook series of books (available on Amazon), with installments on the personal statement, the medical school interview, and the MCAT. Related episode: Introduction to the OldPreMeds Podcast. Related episode: How to Get Letters of Recommendation as a Nontrad. Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” for 10% off Next Step full-length practice tests or “MSHQTOC” for $50 off MCAT tutoring or the Next Step MCAT Course at Next Step Test Prep!

In today’s episode, I talk with Carrie, who is 36 years old as she is finishing her 1st year in medical school. Carrie shares with us her very nontraditional path into medicine, coming from a corporate world and being married with three daughters. She also talks about the power of surrounding herself with like-minded individuals through OldPreMeds. Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post Check out my Premed Playbook series of books (available on Amazon), with installments on the personal statement, the medical school interview, and the MCAT. Related episode: First Year Med Student, med_kat28, Talks About Her Journey. Related episode: From a 2.7 Undergrad GPA to First-Year Medical Student. Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” for 10% off Next Step full-length practice tests or “MSHQTOC” for $50 off MCAT tutoring or the Next Step MCAT Course at Next Step Test Prep!

In today’s episode, Ryan talks with Richard Levy, the Executive Director of the National Society for Nontraditional Premedical and Medical Students and the publisher of the OldPreMeds.org, which is the main website for the society. Links and Other Resources: Full Episode Blog Post OldPreMeds.org 10 Things Every Non-Traditional Premed Should Know Pancakes Every Day Video and Original Post MCAT 2013 AACOMAS Instruction Manual If you need any help with the medical school interview, go to medschoolinterviewbook.com. Sign up and you will receive parts of the book so you can help shape the future of the book. This book will include over 500 questions that may be asked during interview day as well as real-life questions, answers, and feedback from all of the mock interviews Ryan has been doing with students. Are you a nontraditional student? Go check out oldpremeds.org. For more great content, check out www.mededmedia.com for more of the shows produced by the Medical School Headquarters including the OldPremeds Podcast and watch out for more shows in the future! Free MCAT Gift: Free 30+ page guide with tips to help you maximize your MCAT score and which includes discount codes for MCAT prep as well. Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we’ll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us. Check out our partner magazine, www.premedlife.com to learn more about awesome premed information. Next Step Test Prep: Get one-on-one tutoring for the MCAT and maximize your score. Get $50 off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website. Check out their 10-full length practice tests and save 10% using the code “MSHQ”. Listen to our podcast for free at iTunes: medicalschoolhq.net/itunes and leave us a review there! Email Ryan at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq